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Publications of the University of Virginia ( > 

Phelps-Stokes Fellowship Papers 
Number Four 



The Negro in Virginia Politics, 1 865- 1 902 



BY 

RICHARD L. MORTON, Ph.D.. 

Phelps-Stokes Fellow in the University of Virginia, 1917-1918 



Charlottesville, Va. 

The University of Virginia Press 

1919 



^.?2 



Vs M^Z 



library of congress 
MAY;J71921 




EDITORIAL NOTE. 



The Phelps-Stokes Fellowshii) for the study of the Xegro 
was founded at the University of Virginia in 1912 through a 
gift from the trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. It is the 
duty of the holder of the Fellowship to stimulate and conduct 
investigation and to encourage and guide a wider general inter- 
est among students concerning the character, condition, and 
possibilities of the negroes in the Southern States. 

W'itii this object in view the successive incumbents have or- 
ganized classes for study that have been well attended and dil- 
igent. Special investigations have been carried on by each Fel- 
low : related topics have been assigned for study by indi\iduals 
and groups, and the results presented for class discussion ; and 
from time to time men distinguisiied as thoughtful students of 
negro life have been invited to lecture at the University. Sev- 
eral studies, of which this is Number Four, have been consid- 
ered of suf^cient importance to merit publication. In no case, 
however, is the University or the Phelps-Stokes Fellowship 
Committee to be considered as passing judgment on the conclu- 
sions of these papers. 



PREFACE. 



The seriousness of the race prol)lcm in the social and ])ohlical 
life of any one of the United States varies directly with the 
percentage of the negro element to its total population. In 1(%5 
forty-two per cent of the population of Virginia was colored. 
Negroes were in the majority in forty-three of the one hundred 
counties of the State. In 1902 \'irginia ranked fifth in the L'n- 
ion in the number of its negroes, and seventh in the percentage 
of negroes to its total population. There were 1,192,855 whites 
and 660,772 blacks in the State. Negroes, therefore, formed 
35.7 per cent of the population. The race problem was rendered 
more acute by the fact that the greater part of the negro popula- 
tion was found in the Tidewater and Piedmont sections. Ne- 
groes were in the majority in thirty-five of the counties.^ 

In over one-half of the Northern states, at this time (1902), 
negroes did not constitute one per cent of the poimlation. Mass- 
achusetts, with a population of 2,801,738, had only 31. ''74 ne- 
groes, 1.2 per cent of the total population. It ranked twenty- 
fifth in the Union in number of negro inhabitants and thirt\- 
first in the percentage of negroes to its total po])ulation. F.vcn 
these figures did not express the difiference in the problems con- 
fronting the two great sections of the country, for in the North- 
ern States, illiteracy among the negroes was comparatively small, 
while in Virginia over fifty per cent of the male negroes of vot- 
ing age were illiterate. - 

The Northern student of race relations is too far away to 
understand the Southerner's problem — even though he may have 
a formidalile arra}' of facts and figures at his command. The 
Southerner, on the other hand, is too close to the negro to form 
an entirely unbiased opinion regarding him. Much harm has 



'. See map opposite page 147. 

^ About 12 per cent of the adult male whites were illiterate. This 
percentage was somewhat lower among the whites of the black belt. 



PREFACE 



been done to both races in the South by ignorance of conditions 
and by harsh criticisms of the South as a whole when things 
have gone wrong in one locahty. It should be remembered by 
those studying race relations in the South that conditions pre- 
vailing in \'irginia and in Georgia, for example, are entirely dif- 
ferent in many respects. They are different in degree rather 
than in kind. The same may be said of \''irginia and any one of 
the Northern states where the negro has become a problem, even 
in a very limited degree. Race troubles in East St. Louis and in 
other Northern cities show this to be a fact. They also show 
how truly remarkable is the present harmony between the two 
races of the black belts of the South. 

Most of the friction between the races in the South since the 
War of Secession, has grown out of the work and teachings of 
political agitators who have sought to use the untutored negro 
to further their selfish aims. Few people realize that the politi- 
cal and racial troubles of the South did not end with the over- 
throw of the Reconstruction governments in the seventies, and 
that those troubles which followed were a constant reminder of 
that evil period in which they had originated. The negro may 
well be i^roud of the progress he has made, with the aid and 
encouragement of the white man, in bettering his condition dur- 
ing the last twenty years. It is the opinion of the author that 
this im])roved condition and the increasing harmony existing be- 
tween the two races could only have come through the removal 
of the negro from sectionalism and politics. 

In X'irginia, prior to the War of Secession, the political tra- 
ditions handed down from the days of Washington, Jefferson, 
Madison, Marshall, tlic l\an(loli)hs and other statesmen had cast 
an aristocratic dignity and noblesse oblige around politics and 
]joliticians that is not readily understood by those not acquainted 
with \'irginia history prior to the war. This feeling made the 
])Cople of the State choose well their ])olitical leaders and caused 
them to be most conservative in extending the suft'rage. Not 
until 18.^0 was white manhood suft'rage adopted, and a recognition 
of this political conservation prior to Reconstruction is essential 
to an understanding of the attitude of X'irginians towards the 
participation in i)olitics of their former slaves, led by unscrupu- 
lous adventurers. 



PREFACE 7 

The political history of Virginia since 1865 is of unusual in- 
terest. It tells of the struggle of a peoi)le. bled by four years of 
war and stripped of capital, to adapt their social, economic and 
political life to new conditions. Several monographs have been 
written which deal more or less with the part that the negro has 
played in the politics of this period. Professor J. A. C. Chand- 
ler, in his Rcprcsciilalioii in rir(/inl(t, and f/istory of Suffrage 
ill I'irc/inia, gives brief accounts of the history of representation 
and suffrage in the State since 1<S65. These studies, however, 
deal mainly with the ])criod before 1865. Negroes and Their 
Treatment in I'irijinia from i86^^ to i86j by Professor J. P. Mc- 
Connell gives a faithful account of the condition of the colored 
people just after their emancipation. Professor H. J. Ecken- 
rode's The Political History of J'irgiiiia during Reconstruction 
and Professor C. C. Pearson's The Readjuster Movement in 
Virginia are \aluable studies of the subjects they discuss. 

Although much has already been written about \'irginia poli- 
tics since 1865, the author feels justified in adding to these 
works one which gives a connected account of the effect of the 
negro on politics and of politics on the negro in \'irginia during 
the entire i])eriod from 1865 to 1902. 

The author wishes to thank Professor Kichard Neath Dabney 
and Miss Estelle Dinwiddie of the I'niversity of \'irginia for 
many helpful suggestions. For the outline map of \'irginia, show- 
ing the county boundaries and the natural divisions of the State, 
upon which the charts of this book are based, the author is in- 
debted to Mr. ]\Iorgan P. Robinson.^ He also wishes to acknowl- 
edge the assistance of Mr. Noland W. Brown of the University 
of Mrginia in drawing the charts. 

Rini.'KRD L. MORTOX. 

University of riryinia. 



' It was prepared by Mr. Robinson for his I'irginia dumtics: 
Those Resulting from J'irgiuia Legislation, opposite page 124. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. 
Introduction 11 

Chapter II. 
The Beginnings of Xegro Suffrage — 1861 to 1867 15 

Chapter III. 
The Campaign of 1867 — Radicals and Negroes Draw the Color 
Line ^ 

Chapter IV. 
The Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868 rO 

Chaptzr \". 
The Committee of Nine 61 

Chapter VI. 
The Campaign of 1869 and the Restoration of \"irginia 70 

Chapter \'II. 
The Elimination of the Carpetbaggers— 1869 to 1879 SI 

Chapter VIII. 
The Readjuster Movement in \'irginia. 1879-18S3 98 

Chapter IX. 
Politics and Race Friction — 1S85 to 1900 1-7 

Chapter X. 
The Constitutional Convention of UX^l-1902 and the Xew 
Constitution 1*^^ 



Bibliography 1^ 

Appendix 1 167 

Apf)endix II 1' 1 

Appendix III 1'"^ 

Appendix IV 1^ 



CHAPTER I. 

IXTRUDLCTIO.V. 

The negro has always been either an active or a passive factor 
in X'irg^inia politics. Prior to the Revolution the X'irginians at- 
tempted in vain to put an end to the nefarious slave trade, and 
they gave as one of the causes for the revolt from their molher 
country the enforced continuation of that trade. In 1778 the 
Commonwealth of \'irginia went on record as the "first political 
community of the civilized modern world" to abolish the trafhc' 
The ]x>ople of \'irginia, like those of her sister states of the 
North and of the South, accepted slaxery with the moral appro- 
bation of the world. Then came the spirit of freedom and de- 
mocracy that destroyed the theory of the divine right of kings 
in most of Europe and found expression in the writings and 
deeds of Virginians in the days of the Revolution and of the 
founding of the Republic. The leaders of those days realized 
that the doctrines of the Virginia Bill of Rights and of the Dec- 
laration of Independence were markedly at variance with the 
institution of slavery. "1 will not. I cannot justify it . . ,"" said 
Patrick Henry. "I believe the time will come when an oppor- 
tunity will be afforded to abolish this lamentable evil. l\ver>-- 
thing we can do is to improve it, if it hapi^ens in our day; if 
not, let us transinit to our descendants, together with our slaves, 
a pity for their unhappy lot and an abhorrence of slavery." - 

At this time negro slaves constituted almost fifty per cent of 
the total population of the State. They were but shortly re- 
moved from savagery and were utterly unfit for citizenship in a 
democracy. They were a social menace to their owners, and 
w'ere beginning to be an economic burden. Thomas Jefferson 
pictured the situation truthfully when he said. "We have tlvj wolf 



* J. C. Ballagh, A History of SUnrry in rir^iitia p. 2.1. (Jolins Hop- 
kins University Studies.) Hening's Statutes, ix. 471-172. 

• G. Morgan. The True Patrick Hoiry, p. 246. 



11 



12 ruitLrs-sTOKFS fellowship papers 

hv the ears, aiul it is as dangerous to let go as it is to hoUl on." '^ 

Most \'irginians were abolitionists, but not in the later sense 
of that word. The General Assembly of 1831-32 gave most of 
its time to a brilliant discussion of abolition. There was no more 
eloquent arraignment of slavery than that given in the debates 
of that session. Finally a bill that would have greatly encour- 
aged manumission was defeated by one vote in the Senate, 
after having passed the House of Delegates. The defeat of any 
plan of emancipation was due to the fact that it could not solve 
the race question. It would have demoralized the whole system 
of labor in the State and would have left the large mass of igno- 
rant freedmen with no adequate instruction or restraint. The 
helplessness of finding a way out of these dif^culties. and the 
bitter aggressiveness and — from the Southern viewpoint — the 
Pharisaic sectionalism of the Xew England Abolitionists, who 
were just beginning their agitations, closed the mouths of the 
anti-slavery men in \*irginia and induced some to defend openly 
the unhappy institution with logic and with Scripture. But the 
conservative people of the State were always opposed to slavery 
in theory, although they could see no practical manner of ridding 
themselves of the institution. 

In 1861 \"irginians entered the War of Secession in an at- 
tempt to assert the right of nationalit}- for the Confederate 
States, just as their forefathers had done in the days of the Rev- 
olution to gain American independence. 

In 1865 they came out of the war freed from slaver\- but con- 
fronted with a tremendous racial and social problem in the great 
crowd of freedmen. who were poor, ignorant, unmoral, supersti- 
tious, easily led astray and utterly unused to the ways of freedom 
and self-control. They outnumbered the whites in almost half 
of the counties, the local units of government of the State. The 
difficulties of the situation were enhanced by the fact that the 
State government was no longer in the hands of those who un- 
derstood conditions and who were most fit to administer it. 

Before the radical element of the Republican part}- gained con- 



Quoted in B. B. Munford. I'irginia's Attitude 1 onards Slavery and 
Secession, p. 73. 



THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA POLITICS 13 

trol of the Federal government the cxMiservative leaders of both 
parties in the Xorth looked upon negro suffrage as unwise 
and dangerous in the South. ^ and not highly desirable in the 
Xorth. In 1865 there were only six Xorthem States which per- 
mitted negroes to vote: Elaine, Massachusetts, Xew Hampshire. 
Rhode Island. \*ermont. and Wisconsin.^ In those States riiere 
were discriminations against them, with the probable exception 
of Maine. Yet n^roes in the Xorthem States were not an ap- 
preciable factor in the population and were far more intelligent 
than the Southern ex-slaves. In the Federal capital, itself, they 
were not allowed to vote. On June 8. 1867. Congress passed a 
biU over the President's veto establishing negro suffrage in the 
District of Columbia, ^\^len the plan was submitted to the vot- 



* Oliver P. Morton in a speech at Richmond, Indiana, in Septem- 
ber. 1565. said: "I believe that in the case of the four million slaves 
just freed from bondage there should be a period of probation and 
preparation before they are brought to the exercise of political 
power * * * To say that such men. just emerged from slavery, 
are qualified for the exercise of political power is the strongest pro- 
slavery argument I ever heard. It is to pay the highest compliment 
to the institution of slavery." He proposed that the simrage be 
withheld from them until immigration had made a good white ma- 
jority in the Southern States. 

In his valedictory address of January 5. 1S66. Governor Andrew, 
of Massachusetts, said: '"It would be idle to reorganize those States 
[the Southern States] by the colored vote. If the popular vote of 
the white race is not to be had in favor of the guarantees justly re- 
quired, then I am in favor of holding on just where we now are. I 
am not in favor of a surrender of the present rights of the L.'ion 
to a struggle between a white minority, aided by the freedmen on 
the one hand, against a majority of the white race on the other. I 
would not consent. ha\-ing rescued these States by arms from se- 
cession and rebellion, lo turn them over to anarchy and chaos. 

"I only know that we ought to demand and secure the co-opera- 
tion of the strongest and ablest minds and the natural leaders of 
opinion in the South." 

For the above quotations and for a further consideration of this 
subject, see William Henry Trescot, **The Southern Question." 
Xorth .-Imcncjn Rczit-w, October. 1576 (cxxiii. 249-2S0). 

* Xew York (and Tennessee^ permitted limited Negro suffrage. 
G. T. Stephenson. Race DistinctioHS in American Lt:l\ p. 2S5. 



14 PHKLPS-fiTOKRS FKLLOWSHIP PAPERS 

ers, it was rejected by a vote of 6,321 to 35 in Washington, and 
by a vote of 812 to 1 in Georgetown. Rut negro suffrage was 
introduced, and after four years of trial proved so disastrous 
that Congress had to rid the District of the disturbing element 
in politics by disfranchising the whole population. 

Unlimited negro suffrage had no place in Lincoln's plan of Re- 
construction, or in the early Congressional plan. It was forced 
upon the South by a group of aggressive radicals led by Thad- 
deus Stevens as a means of their personal aggrandisement and 
of executing punishment and revenge upon the Southern States. 
Its effects in \^irginia are shown in the pages that follow. 



CHAPTER II. 
Thk Beginnings of Negro Suffrage — 1861 to 1867. 

Prior to 1865 Virginia had enjoyed for four years the unique 
distinction of having two governments, the regular State gov- 
ernment that was in the Confederacy and the shadowy revolu- 
tionary government set up in trans-Alleghany Virginia and rec- 
ognized by President ijncoln as the government of all Virginia. 

Although there was unanimity regarding secession in the 
counties that are within the present boundaries of Virginia, the 
trans-Alleghany counties opposed it and in June 1861 set up a 
government known as the "Restored Government of Virginia." 
F. H. Pierpont was made governor and in August 1861 the leg- 
islature met in Wheeling and gave the consent of N'irginia to the 
formation of the new State of West Virginia from the counties 
that had seceded from \^irginia. After having given away about 
all the territory over which it could really claim jurisdiction, the 
Wheeling government found itself in a foreign State. Governor 
Pierpont, therefore, changed his capital to Alexandria where his 
government represented a minority in a few border counties un- 
der the shadow of the Federal armies. Here his capital re- 
mained until the spring of 1865 when it was removed to Rich- 
mond after its evacuation by the Confederate forces. 

In May, 1864, a constitutional convention was called by the 
"Restored Government." This convention, representing a con- 
stituency composed mostly of people from without the State and 
people with Northern sympathies, adopted a constitution limit- 
ing the suffrage to (loyal) white male citizens of the Common- 
wealth. ^ 

By recognizing this government on May 9, 1865, President 
Johnson gave Virginia a government of her own shortly after 
the close of the war. Governor Pierpont sudlenly found him- 
self governor in deed as well as in name, and was recognized as 



' Constitution of 1864, Article III. 

15 



16 PHKLPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

such by the people of the State. The people of \'irginia now de- 
sired peace and restoration. The questions of state rights and 
slavery had been settled in fact, whatever their theories might 
have been. 

After the struggle for state rights had. with Lincoln's Eman- 
cipation Proclamation in 1863, "degenerated," as Governor 
Letcher expressed it, into a war for the emancipation of slaves, ^ 
it was evident that the defeat of the Confederate armies meant 
the end of slavery. 

On June 19, 1865, an extra session of the legislature that had 
previously met in Alexandria was called. This legislature passed 
some much needed laws regarding freedmen, and also an enabling 
act which resulted in the removal of the clauses in the constitu- 
tion of 1864 disfranchising those who aided the Confederacy. 
Just before the adjournment of this Assembly, Speaker Downey 
congratulated its members that the State had been delivered 
from the hands of the "Abolitionists" (the radical Republicans). 
"\'irginia." he said, "is now safe. Whatever they may do to 
other states, thank God they cannot now saddle negro suffrage 
upon us." ^ This utterance, though coming from the foreign and 
Union element in \'irginia, is not surprising in view of the fact 
that the negro was not only denied the sufifrage in most of the 
Xorthern States but was even forbidden to enter some of them 
with the intention of residing.-* Speaker Downey was but ex- 



' "It is no longer a war for the preservation of the old Union, as 
it was originall}' proclaimed to be, but it has degenerated into a war 
for the emancipation of our slaves." House Journal and Documents, 
1863-64. 

' H. J. Eckenrode, Political History of Viri^inia duriii_:^ Rccn)i .trnc- 
tioii. p. 30. (Johns Hopkins University Studies, vol. xxii). 

For example. Illinois, in 18.")3, put on her statute books a law 
making it a misdemeanor for a negro to enter the State with the 
intention of residing. In 1862, this law was made a part of the State 
constitution. In Article XVIII, Section 1, it was enacted that "No 
negro or mulatto shall immigrate or settle in this State after the 
adoption of the constitution." 

"This article of the constitution," observed Mr. Munford, "was 
submitted to the popular vote separately from the body of the con- 
stitution, and, though the latter was rejected by over 16,000 major- 



THE NEGRO IN VTRGIXIA POLITICS 17 

pressing the sentiment of the great body of conser\ative incn of 
the North at that time. But the unfortunate personaHty of Pres- 
ident Johnson, the necessary but unwise vagrancy laws of the 
Southern States and the growing need of the RepubUcan party 
for extreme measures to keep itself in power brought the Radi- 
cals in Congress to the front. 

Governor Pierpont, though a staunch L'nion man, was very 
conservative and for that reason soon lost favor with the radi- 
cals in his party. These men. for the most part scalawags and 
carpetbaggers, desired to gain control of the State for their own 
purposes by disfranchising most of the whites and giving the 
ballot to the ignorant negroes. On June 12. 1863. the Republi- 
cans of the Radical center, Alexandria, formed a political asso- 
ciation. They adopted resolutions to the effect that the State 
was in danger of coming under the control of secessionists and 
that this should be prevented ; and "that the constitution of \'ir- 
ginia should be amended so as to confer the right of suffrage 
upon, and restrict it to, loyal male citizens without regard to 
color." This "Union Association of Alexandria." as it was 
called, also urged the people of the North, and Congress, to re- 
gard the Pierpont government as merely pro\isional and to order 
an election of members to a state convention in which all loval 
men should vote regardless of their color. According to Mr. 
Eckenrode, "This was the first announcement of the advocacy 
of negro suffrage by the Republican party in \'irginia." '"' 

The State elections in the fall of 1865 resulted in the amend- 
ment of the Alexandria constitution of 1864 so as to extend the 
franchise to those who had aided the Confederacy, and to allow 



ity, the former was made a part of the organic law of Illinois by a 
majority of 100.590. This vote was taken in August. 1862, and thus, 
barely a month before Mr. Lincoln's first Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation, the people of his own state, by a vote approaching unanin-ity. 
placed in their constitution this clause preventing free negroes from 
coming into their commonwealth." 

MunfoTd, J'irgiiiia's Attitude TflZi'ards Slavery nri-l Secessinii, pp. 
171-172. 

" H. J. Eckenrode, Political History of I'irgiiiia during Reconstruc- 
tion, p. 33. 



IS PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

them to hold office. As a result, the legislature that met on De- 
cember -I — the very day that the \'irginia delegates were refused 
seats in Congress — was a very representative and conservative 
body. John B. Baldwin, of Augusta county, an ex-congressman 
of the Confederacy and one of the ablest and best politicians of 
the State, was made speaker of the House of Delegates. R. M. 
T. Hunter. William Smith and others of like prominence in the 
Commonwealth were members of the Assembly. The conserva- 
tism of this body may be inferred from the fact that out of the 
ninetv-seven members of the House of Delegates all but one 
were old line Whigs.^' 

There was plenty of work for this legislature to do for a war- 
stricken State. It attempted to win back West Mrginia. and, 
since that was impossible, to effect with that State a reasonable 
adjustment of the public debt. On March 2. 1866, the Assembly 
passed bv a unanimous vote an act to provide for funding the 
interest on the public debt. One-third of the debt was consid- 
ered as West \'irginia's share." In order to put an end to the 
rumors that the Assembly would repudiate the State debt, this 
legislature passed the following joint resolution: 

"1. Resolved, That this General Assembly will pass no such acts 
of repudiation. 

"2. That such legislation would be no less destructive of our future 
prosperity than of our credit, our integrity, and our honor." 

This resolution of what may be regarded as the last General 
Assembly of the ante-bellum regime should be carefully borne in 
mind when considering the Readjuster legislation of 1879 to 
1885.^^ 

The greatest problem that confronted this legislature when it 
met in December. 1865. was the large number of aimless, va- 
grant freedmen. The State had been the main battle field of a 
long war. Many of her young men were dead : her capital was 
gone : her transportation system was crippled : the whole system 



' Eckenrode. Political History of J'irginia diiri)ig Rcconstructioit. 
p. 41. 

' House Journal. 1S65-66. p. 448; Senate Journal. 1S65-66. p. 312; 
Acts of Assembly, 1S65-66. ch. 9. p. 79; Ibid., ch. 35. 

' Acts of Assembly. 1866-67. ch. 73. p. 499. 



THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA POLITICS 19 

of labor was demoralized. Although want and poverty were 
everywhere and labor was needed as never before, there was in 
many localities an abundance of freedmen who understood 
freedom to mean exemption from work and the ability to roam 
at will and to live by the aid of the Freedmen's Bureau and petty 
thieving. ]\Iany of them, in order to fully demonstrate their 
freedom, left their old homes. Often their wives and children 
were left as a further burden on their former masters. They 
crowded into the cities. They congregated in some places in the 
country, killed the cattle and poultry, and devastated the corn 
fields and melon patches. The whites of the State, scattered 
through the rural districts with little police protection, if any, 
were naturally alarmed at this condition of affairs.^ 

The reports of the military officers stationed in X'irginia show 
that this tendency among the negroes was also causing them 
grave concern. They advised the negroes to go to work, and 
attempted to put an end to vagrancy among them by the use of 
their authority. An order of June 1. 1865, of General Gregg, 
who was stationed at Lynchburg, reads as follows : "Xo f reed- 
man can be allowed to live in idleness when he can obtain any 
description of work. Should he refuse to work he will be treated 
as a vagabond." On the day following the date of this order, 
another was issued by General Gregg to the effect that, "Able- 
bodied men will be prevented, as far as it is possible to do so, 
from deserting the w-omen, children and aged persons ; and where 
there is no good cause shown why they left, they will be sent 
back." General Duval at Staunton gave notice on June 2, 1865. 
'"That all negroes now roaming the country will be made at once 
to break up their idle pursuits and seek employment." Colonel 
Brown, in a report of January 2. 1866. said that "in the neigh- 
borhood of Norfolk. Fortress Monroe and Yorktown. about 
seventy thousand negroes have been collected during the war. 
... In other districts, thousands of freedmen were roaming 
about without settled employment and without 1 omes. In locali- 



" J. P. McConnell, Xegroes and Their Treatment in Virginia from 
1863 to 1867, P- 45. The newspapers of the period are filled with com- 
plaints of vagrancy among the negroes. 



20 PIlCLPS-STOKr-ZS FEIvLOWSIiri' PAPERS 

ties, least disturbed by the pressure or conflict of armies and 
where the average amount of land was under cultivation, the 
crops were suffering from want of proper attention." ^"* 

The wages paid the freedmen were very low. The farmers 
were without capital and could afiford to pay very little. On the 
other hand the freedmen showed no disposition to assume any 
responsibility for their contracts or their work, and consequently, 
their aid could not be depended upon in advance. At the same 
time they were encouraged by the carpetbaggers, and sometimes 
by the officers of the Freedmen's Bureau, to demand higher 
wages than had ever been paid in the State to either whites or 
blacks. 

The need for legislation to prevent vagrancy was very great 
and the demand for such legislation was urgent and insistent, es- 
pecially throughout eastern \'irginia. Under these circum- 
stances it was natural that the legislature should have attempted 
to find some relief for the situation. An act was therefore passed 
whose stringency was commensurate with the seriousness of the 
evil that existed.'^ 

It was provided in this act that all beggars, except those who 
were incapable of labor, and all persons in the State who could 
not support themselves and their families and yet refused to 
work for the "usual and common wages given to other laborers 
in the like work in the place where they then were" be classed as 
vagrants. Along with these were placed all persons who came 
into the State and who had no occupation or visible means of 
support and who could not give an account of themselves or their 
business. If upon due examination a person was found to be a 
vagrant, he was to be hired out for any term not exceeding three 
months and the wages used for him or his family. I'rovision was 
made for the punishment of the vagrant should he attempt to 
escape from his enforced employment. 

There wjts no distinction of color made in this law. Although 
it was intended i)riniarily for the freedmen. the fifth section of 



'" The quotations above are found in J. V. AlcConnell, A'cgrocs 
and Their Treatment in I'irginia from i86j to 1S67, pp. 48, 49. 
" Acts of Assembly, 1865-66, pp. 'Jl-93. 



THE NEGRO TN VIRGINIA POLITICS 21 

the second article of the law undotibtedly refers to the political 
adventurers who had already begun to swarm into the State in 
search of loot. The law resembled those enacted in the New 
England states when they were menaced by a large number of 
more or less ignorant and vagrant immigrants. It was stringent 
only for incorrigibles but was subject to abuse. Although cir- 
cumstances demanded a stringent law, it was unwise at this lime 
because it furnished at a critical period in national politics good 
material for Radical Republican propaganda. The practical 
working of the law was not tested, since it was annulled nine 
days after its passage by Major-General Terry on the ground 
that it would virtually restore slavery under another guise. It 
was, no doubt, on account of the misinterpretation of tiie \a- 
grancy law that the legislature passed the following resolution 
on February 6. 1865: 

"Rcsokrd, That involuntary servitude, except for crime, is abol- 
ished, and ought not to be re-established, and that the negro race 
among us be treated with justice, humanity, and good faith, and 
every means that the wisdom of the Legislature can devise should 
be used to make them useful and intelligent members of society." 

That the legislature wished to make it clear that, in their opin- 
ion, the time was not ripe for preci]iitating the ignorant freed- 
men into the electorate without ])reliniinrn y training is shown by 
the further resolution "that earnest thanks are due the President 
for the firm stand he has taken against amendments of the con- 
stitution forced through in the present condition of affairs." '- 

That this legislature had no desire to re-enslave the negro is 
shown by the act of February 27, 1865, i'' which repealed, for 
the most part, the old slave code. b>en the laws prohibiti.ig 
negroes from owning firearms or other weapons were repealed, 
in spite of the prexailing unrest among the negroes and the fear 
among many of the whites of negro insurrections. 

On January 23, 1866. the condition of affairs in \'irginia came 
before the Reconstruction Committee in Congress. The great 
majority of witnesses were Republicans, mostly radicals, who 



" Acts of Assembly, 1865-66, p. 449. 
" Acts of Assembly, 1865-66, pp. 84-85. 



'>'> 






when a-sked what the Viigimans. if left to themselves, wc . 

- . c^rth. fhrv -: 

the Un: d3e\- w roes."*^ 

:. _ . .. ils. Mostc _ :. _:. r : - .: 

all kinds were afloat. At this time more acts of violence were 

races in the State. The State 

vazrants. and the v. U as wt f 

"t; was rapiGiy cr 

:... ...lake of treating .... 

South as a whole, in spite of : 
greatly in the different States. 

The ' -. ' ' he negroes f ' ir 

and its lelit\- of the ^ 

jority of them to their masters and their masters' families 
'e period of the vrar has always 
:ion \s\ the white peo''e '* the S, 
still depended upon their f ^sters for advice and aid- 

The press ar r - - ._ stationed 

in \'irginia : _ .erween the 

two races from 1865 to 1867. It was the injection of the ne- 
; before they v.^ - ^ ^_ 

:.- .. ; . . /iibilities of the ::_ \... . . /^ .^. . : u- 

ence of the Freedmen's Bureau ofiicials, Union Leaguers, Xorth- 
err. adventurers of all kinds and Northern school teach- 

ers ... ._used the friction that existed between whites and 
blacks after 1867. 

The year 1866 was f; iety to '.e of Virginia. 

At the end of the previo t h— ^e:- ..a- refused to admit 



** Reports cA Reconstruction Committee, Thirty-Ninth Congress, 
first session. Part 2, Virginia; Reports of the Secretary of War, 
Thirty-Ninth Congress, second session. Con^r^'jjiV/fMt/ GU/be, l%65-66, 
pp. 1407-1411. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 23 

their representatives. Lincoln's plan of early conciliation and 
restoration, that President Johnson had adopted, was doomed to 
failure. From the nature of the witnesses and the testimony 
they gave before the Reconstruction Committee in January, 1866, 
it was evident that Congress had nothing good in store for \'ir- 
ginia. It was felt that the old South with its traditions had gone, 
that the eastern part of the State would probably sink into the 
condition of Hayti, and that whatever might be saved from be- 
ing "Negroized" would only be saved at the price of being "Yan- 
keeized" — whatever that word connotated at the time.^^ 

Emboldened by the increased strength of the Radicals in Con- 
gress, their followers were much encouraged to seek control of 
affairs in Mrginia. On May 17, 1866, the ■"Unconditional Un- 
ion Convention" met in Alexandria. It was the first state-wide 
political convention in the State since the war. Its chairman 
was John Minor Botts. a man of no mean ability, who had re- 
mained loval to the Union during the war and had not thereby 
increased his popularity in his native State. A resolution was 
adopted by this convention. "That no reorganized State govern- 
ment of Mrginia should be recognized by the government of the 
United States which does not exclude from suffrage and holding 



" In a letter to Dr. Moses D. Hoge of August 16. 1S63. Dr. R. L. 
Dabney. one of the leading theologians of the period, writes from 
his home in the black belt of Virginia that "people do not enough 
allow for the poisonous effects of an oppressive government, which, 
with this blight so visible now in society, and church, and the killing 
and banishing of the most of our better spirits. I fear that the in- 
dependence, the honor, the hospitality, the integrity, the everyth'ng 
which constituted Southern character has gone forever." 

In a letter of March 13. 1S66. Dr. R. L. Dabney wrote from his 
home in Prince Edward County. "It seems to me nearly every per- 
son of any standing or intelligence I meet with is inclined to emi- 
gration, and onl}' needs an inviting outlet to determine him." Mat- 
thew Fontaine Maury, then in Belgium, was much interested in find- 
ing a suitable country as a home for those who should leave Vir- 
ginia. General Tubal A. Early, who was never re onstructed. looked 
with especial favor upon Xew Zealand, because it was "far from 
Yankees and negroes." 

Thomas Gary Johnson. The Life aud Letters of Robert Lezvis Dab- 
ney, pp. 304-307. 



24 PHEI.I'S-STOKKS FHLLOWSllIP I'APERS 

ofifice, at least for a term of years, all ipersons who have volun- 
tarily given moral or material support to rebellion against the 
United States, and which does not, with such disfranchisement, 
provide for the immediate enfranchisement of all Union men 
without distinction of color." It declared that since the \ irginia 
legislature was made up largely of rebels, it was an illegal body 
and that its laws, therefore, should be considered illegal and void. 
The convention furthermore had circulated through the State a 
petition, addressed to the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States, asking that the Pierpont government be 
overthrown and that reconstruction of Virginia be made along 
those lines afterwards adopted by Congress and known as the 
Congressional plan of Reconstruction. This plan would require 
the appointment of a provisional governor. Therefore, "They 
[the signers of this petition] further request," continued the pe- 
tition, "that the Hon. John C. Underwood, the faithful patriot 
and distinguished jurist, who has always adhered to the gov- 
ernment with a fidelity which no flattery could seduce, no bribery 
corrupt, nor fears intimidate, be selected as said provisional 
Governor." ^^ 

John C. Underwood was a native of New York who had lived 
in Clarke county, Virginia, for a few years prior to the War of 
Secession and who had become so unpopular there on account of 
his radicalism that he soon found it more agreeable at the North. 
He was a man of little education or natural ability and was ut- 
terly unscrupulous. He returned to Virginia in the wake of the 
Federal armies and had already made himself obnoxious by ad- 
vocating the disfranchisement of all but "loyal" whites, by his 
activity in confiscating the property of Virginians who had aided 
the Confederacy, and by urging the negroes to be active in pol- 
itics. 

Uesides the adverse testimony before the Reconstruction Com- 
mittee there was other material for Radical propaganda against 
Virginia in 1866. In the spring of that year. Judge Thomas, of 
Alexandria, rendered a decision adverse to the Civil Rights law 
when he held that the laws of Virginia forbade negroes to testify 



,lppletO)i's Annual American Cyclopaedia, 1866, "Virginia." 



THE NEGRO IN VIRCIXIA I'OLITICS 25 

in cases where only whites were concerned, and that a Federal 
law conld not prescribe qualifications for witnesses in a State. 
A more serious case was that of Dr. Watson, of Rockbridge 
county, who was brought to trial that fall for the murder of a 
negro and was acquitted. \\'hereui)on he was ordered by Gen- 
eral Schofield to appear before a military tribunal, but was par- 
doned by President Johnson before trial, .\lthough such cases 
were exceptional, they were used with much effect in creating 
an unfavorable impression of conditions in Virginia at the Xorth. 

On September 2, a convention was called at Philadelphia t(j 
bring together the Republicans at the Xorth and the L'nionists 
at the South. The topic that was most discussed was unre- 
stricted suft'rage. Of the \'irginia delegation, John Minor IJotts 
opposed unrestricted suffrage, and James W. ITunnicutt, who 
was destined to become one of the leading Radicals of the State, 
advocated manhood suft'rage, except to "rebels." ^'^ During the 
last days of its session, the convention, by a small vote, declared 
itself in favor of manhood suft'rage. As Mr. Eckenrode points 
out, ^^'' it was not until after this convention that manhood suf- 
frage was accepted by the Republican party. 

When on December 2, of this unhappy year, the legislature 
met in its second session. Governor Pierpont wisely advised 
moderation in all laws regarding freedmen and Federal relations, 
and advised the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. lUit 
public sentiment in the State was very strong against the amend- 
ment and the legislature could not conscientiously ratify it while 
there was hope of its being defeated. P)esides, \'irginia consid- 
ered it most illogical and imlawful to be treated as a conquered 

" Rev. James W. Hunnicutt was a native of South Carolina and 
had resided in Alexandria for a number of j-ears as the editor of a 
religious paper. During the war he followed the line of least re- 
sistance and did not oppose the Confederacj'. lUu during Re- 
construction he became one of the most violent and dangerous of 
the Radical demagogues, and through a newspaper, the Xew Natiou, 
which he published in Richmond during that pe. 'od. he exerted a 
very great influence over his party. 

" Eckenrode, Political History of ririiiitia durini; Rcconstruclioti, 
p. 49. 



26 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

province and at the same time be forced to aid in ratifying an 
unwelcome amendment as one of the States of the Union. Con- 
sequently it rejected the amendment on January 9, 1867. i'' 

On -March 3. 1867, the legislature adjourned. But before it 
closed its doors, it requested the Governor to call an extra ses- 
sion at once to meet the emergency that would arise out of legis- 
lation pending in Congress. Governor Pienpont complied with 
the request and, in his message at the beginning of the new ses- 
sion, laid before the Assembly the Reconstruction Act of March 
2 with the advice that a convention be called to make a constitu- 
tion to meet the conditions therein imposed. The legislature 
realizing that the Radicals now had control of Congress, decided 
to act upon the Governor's advice. A bill providing for the call- 
ing of a constitutional convention was introduced in the Senate 
on March 9, and a committee was sent to Washington to learn 
the wishes of Congressional leaders in this matter. They re- 
turned with the assurance of these men that the proposed bill 
was satisfactory and that a convention called according to its 
provisions would be considered legal by them under the Recon- 
struction act of March 2.-" 

The Richmond IVhig had, at an early date, begun to urge the 
l^eople of the State to accept the inevitable. Now the Richmond 
Dispatch urged the people to support the action of the Senate 
and "to come out and take part in the political measures of the 
day, and, gracefully submitting to necessity, thus save themselves 
and their State from the most dreadful fate that ever came upon 
a nation, namely, the giving up, through inaction, their govern- 
ment and their fates to the colored voters and the followers of 
Ilnnnicutt." There were many advocates of inaction in politics 
at first, but this changed as Reconstruction progressed. 

The bill for calling a constitutional convention was passed by 



" General Schofield attributes the action of the Assembly in re- 
jecting the Fourteenth Amendment to influence from Washington, 
perhaps to that of President Johnson. General Schofield advised its 
adoption in order that more radical legislation might be thereby- 
avoided. General John M. Schofield, Forty-Six Years in the Army. 

'■* The Richmond Dispatch, March 11, 1867. 



THE NEGRO IN VIKC.INIA I'OI.ITICS 27 

a large majority in the Senate. Hut the act of Congress of March 
23 made a vote on the bill of no tise in the House. In the mean- 
while, however, the Reconstruction Act of March 2 was being 
put into execution. \ ir^inia now became Military District Niun- 
ber 1, and Lieutenant-General John M. Schofield. who had beeji 
in charge of the Federal troops of the Potomac Division, was 
put in command. He assumed control of the District on March 
13, 1867. Reconstruction had come. 

Virginia was most fortunate in having General Schofield at 
this time. He was conser\ative, wise and just ; and it was due 
to his moral courage and good sense that Virginia was spared 
the reign of terror that existed in most of the Southern States 
during the Reconstruction ]:)erio(i. His i)olicy was to gain the 
confidence and support of the people of the State and to inter- 
fere as little as possible with the civil authorities.-* 

The Reconstruction Acts of March 2 and March 2i gave to 
the freedmen the right to vote for delegates to a constitutional 
convention to frame a constitution according to the wishes of 
Congress. The negroes had, however, already made their first 
attempt to vote on March 5, 1867, at Alexandria, where they had 
been influenced by the Northern settlers in their midst. The 
mayor of the town and the local judge asked the advice of the 
President of the I'nited States and of the Attorney General as 
to the right of these people to partici])ate in the municipal elec- 
tion. As no definite answers were given to the inquiry, negro 
votes were not counted in. In this election there were cast 1.400 
negro votes (counted by a Radical agent), 1,000 white Conser- 
vative votes, and 72 white Radical votes.-- This action on the 
part of the election officials l.>rought forth much harsh criticism 
in the North. Similar troubles elsewhere in N'irginia were jire- 
vented by an order from General Schofield of .\pril 2, which for- 
bade any local election until after registration under the Recon- 



^ John M. Schofield, Forty-Six Years in the Army. p. ?,90. Ch. xxi 
deals with Reconstruction in Virginia. 

"^ H. J. Eckenrode, Political History of I'irginia duriuj; Recouslruc- 
iiou, p. 66. 



28 piif:i.p?-?tokfs fkllowship taphrs 

struction Acts had been completed. In the meanwhile vacancies 
were filled by the Commanding General.--^ 

Immediately after the Reconstruction Act of Congress of 
^larch 23 was published, the Commanding General appointed a 
board of army officers to select suitable (persons as registering 
officers throughout the State. In selecting these officers of reg- 
istration, preference was gi\en : first, to officers of the army and 
of the Freedmen's Bureau on duty in the State ; second, to per- 
sons who had been honorably discharged from the army after 
having seen service; and third, to loyal citizens of the locality in 
which they were to serve. In fact, the greater part of them were 
chosen from the first class. 

The outlook in Congress was becoming more and more dis- 
couraging to the Southern people. On March 19, 1867, Thad- 
deus Stevens introduced his bill for confiscating the property of 
"rebels." In a speech advocating this measure as a punishment 
of the people of the South he said, "The punishment of traitors 
has been wholly ignored by a treacherous Executive and by a 
sluggish Congress. I wish to make an issue before the Ameri- 
can people, and see whether they will sanction the perfect im- 
punity of a murderous belligerent . . . To this issue I desire to 
devote the small remnant of my life." It was in the hands of 
this man and his followers that the fate of the country seemed 
to rest in March, 1867. In view of such leadership in Con- 
gress and of such legislation as had already been enacted, it is 
not surprising that a feeling of uncertainty, gloom and dread 
should have settled down over the people of X'irginia.--* 

'' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1867, p. 758. 

** The description of the conditions that prevailed at the time in 
Virginia, given in the two extracts below from letters in the Rich- 
mond Dispatch of March 21, 1867, are typical of those found in many 
letters and other contemporaneous accounts. 

The first letter, dated March 19, 1867, is from Halifax county. 
"The country," said the writer, "wears now a gloomy aspect, and 
the farmers are depressed. Before the war many farmers worked 
a large number of negroes. But it is now the rarest thing to find 
a half-dozen negroes working together. * * * Politically, the 
people want rest and peace. They have been in war and storm long 
enough. They feel they have no power of resistance, and hence de- 



THE NEGKO IX VIRGINIA I'OMTICS 29 

Prior to September, 1866. negro suffrage was not favorably 
considered except by a few extreme Radicals. But as the Re- 
publican party came under the control of the Radical element, 
which was destined to bring so much discredit upon the party 
not only at the South but at the North, negro suffrage was 
adopted by that iparty to l>olster up its declining strength. The 
negro was most unfortunate in the time of his induction into pol- 
itics, March 1867. And he was still more unfortunate in his 
sponsors on that occasion. It would be hard to imagine less de- 
sirable ])olitical teachers and leaders for the freedmen than such 
men as the carpetbagger Inderwood and the scalawag Ilunni- 
cutt. ^'et these men, whose radicalism was fast bringing them 
into prominence in 1865 and 1866, al^solutely dominated the ne- 
gro voters and, through them. X'irginia politics in the campaign 
of 1867. 



sire to heal the breach between the Soutli and tlie Federal Govern- 
ment with tlie least possible delay. True, you sometimes meet with 
individuals who council entire inactivity; but these are the excep- 
tions to the general rule. Submit to any requirements of the con- 
quering party — for it is a necessity — is well nigh the unanimous 
voice of this region of the country." 

The second is a private letter to the Baltimore Sun. which says 
that it was written by one of the most eminent citizens of Accomac 
county and adds that "there is much reason to believe it too true." 
"I regret," he said, "that there is nothing pleasant to communicate; 
general gloom and despondency hang over our entire section, and a 
fearful looking for what is to come. The prospect is less promis- 
ing to me than at any previous period. We might nerve ourselves 
to meet the most stringent of political measures if there was a cer- 
tainty of its being final. But it seems a disposition to accede to die 
demands of the dominant party leads to more oppressive demands. 

"A want of confidence, a perfect stupor, and an indisposition to 
attempt anything, or to form any plans for the future, is the inevita- 
ble consequence of the position of matters. God only knows what 
is to become of us." 

The above letter explains in part the amazing inactivity that ex- 
isted in some sections of the South among the whites during the 
first part of Reconstruction. 

See also T. C. Johnson. Life and Letters of Robert Lexds Dahncy. 
pp. P,ni-:;o:i. Similar accounts are numerous. 



CHAPTER III. 

Tiiiv Campaic.x of 1867 — Radicals and Xegroes Draw the 

Color Line. 

Registration nndor the Reconstruction Acts took place in the 
summer of 1867. Those who had held any state or Federal of- 
fice and afterwards supported the Confederacy were disqualified 
from holding ofifice and from voting. The following were classed 
as state officials : "Governor. Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of 
State, Auditor of Public Accounts, Second Auditor, Registrar 
of the Land Office, State Treasurer, Attorney-General, Sheriff, 
Sergeant of a city or town. Commissioner of the Revenue, County 
Surveyors, Constables, Overseers of the Poor, Commissioners 
of the Board of Public Works, Judges of the Supreme Court, 
Judge of the Court of Hustings, Justices of the County Courts, 
Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen of a city or town corporation, 
Escheators, Inspectors of tobacco, flour, etc.. Clerks of the Su- 
preme Court, District, Circuit, and County Courts, and of the 
Court of Hustings, and Attorneys for the Commonwealth." ^ 
The Commanding General of the District estimated that 70,000 
of the whites were disfranchised in this way. Although this es- 
timate is "more ingenious than convincing," as Professor Dun- 
ning puts it, it is certain that thousands of the leading men — 
all who had had experience in administration — were disfran- 
chised. 

The number of registrants totaled 225,933. of which 120,101 
were white and 103.832. or 47 per cent were colored. The col- 
ored voters formed a majority in only half of the counties. But 
since these were the most populous counties of the State, they 
were at an immense advantage when it came to representation. 
There were 90,5.^5 registrants in the white section, the northern 
and western part of the State, and 125,895 in the black section 
to the south and east. By a strict apportionment on the basis 



' Act of Congress of July 19 amending tliat of June .3. 

;]0 




i^ ^ 



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THE XF.r.RO IN VIRCIMA POLITICS 31 

used, one representative to 2,061 constituents, there would have 
been 44 representatives from the white counties and 61 from the 
colored counties — in spite of the fact that in the State as a whole 
the majority of the whites was 14.269. The actual apportion- 
ment gave the districts under the white control 47 representa- 
tives to the convention, and those under colored control 58.- 

When the colored population was enfranchised in the spring" 
of 1867. the Republican party was already organized and in the 
field. There was no other party in X'irginia. Inirthcrmore. that 
party had two highly developed organizations to bring the ne- 
groes into line, the Freedmen's Bureau and the L'nion League. 
The Freedmen's Rureaa was established in X'irginia on June 13, 
1865. The State was divided into eight districts, each under an 
assistant quartermaster. These in turn were divided into sub- 
districts under the command of military officers. This organi- 
zation not only protected and cared for the freedmen but also 
imi)ressed upon their minds the debt which they owed the Re- 
publican party. The political strength of this institution was 
great. Rut more powerful as a political factor was the Union 
League. It was organized in X'irginia late in 1866. Its secrecy 
and the mysterious solemnity of its ritual made a strong emo- 
tional appeal to the colored people. They were taught in the 
ritual that their only friends were the L'nion Republicans, and 
that their chief enemies were their former masters who were not 
of the Republican party. ^ They were also encouraged to assert 
their newly acquired rights in season and out of season. •• 
/ As soon as the People of Virginia had recovered from the 
stupefaction into which they had been thrown by the Reconstruc- 
tion Acts, they began at once to attempt to win the colored vote 
from the control of the Radicals. But the futility of their ef- 
forts is plainly shown by the returns of the fall elections. 

There was also a futile attempt made by the conservative col- 



■ Report of the Secretary of War; 4()tli Congress, second session. 
vol. ii, p. 294. 

' XValter L. Fleming, Documentary History of F'ccoiistructioii. 

* The numerous secret organizations among the Xegroes that now 
exist throughout the State may have had their origin in part from 
the Union League. 



32 PHELPS-STOKKS FKLLOWSHIP PAPERS 

ored leaders to win their people from the control of their un- 
scrupulous leaders and to find some basis of compromise with 
the native white conserv^atives. The State owes much to the self 
control, wisdom and moderation of many such colored men who, 
though too much in the minority to accomplish much, did what 
they could to narrow the breach that was rapidly separating the 
two races. .\s early as April 15, 1867, a committee of colored 
men in Richmond invited several prominent white men to give 
their political views. The meeting was held at the theatre and 
was addressed by William H. McFarland, Marmaduke Johnson 
and Raleigh T. Daniel — who was introduced by the chairman of 
the colored committee, Solon Johnson.'' Three days later, a 
great mass meeting assembled in the Court House Square in 
Petersburg. It was called by a number of the most influential 
white citizens of the town and had as its presiding officer Robert 
Mcllwaine. A correspondent of the Richmond Dispatch thus 
described the meeting: "The crowd was immense, and the 
whites and blacks mixed up indiscriminately, and the best dis- 
position was manifested by all present." A series of resolutions 
was unanimously adopted advocating equal school advantages 
for the white and colored, and equal legal and political rights to 
both races. The negroes were invited to attend the political 
meetings of the whites and to participate in their deliberations. 
Although the people of Virginia did not accept the Petersburg 
platform as their political creed, it was a long step forward in 
the compromise movement among the Conservatives of the two 
races. The Richmond Dispatch even went so far as to predict 
that these resolutions would probably be adopted as the platform 
of Conservatives throughout the State. ^ They were adopted by 
several local Conservative conventions. In Charlottesville, on 
April 24, 1867, a meeting was called at the Delevan Hospital by 
a large number of colored men, who invited speakers of both 
races "to interchange political opinions." Speeches were made 
by William F. (lordon and Col. T. J. Randolph, who represented 
the whites, and by Fairfax Taylor and Rev. Nicholas Richmond, 



The Richmond Dispatch, April 15. April IG, 1867. 
The Richmond Dispatch, April 19 and 20, 1867. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 33 

who represented the blacks, llarniony prevailed at the meeting 
with the excei)tion of the speech by Fairfax Taylor, who was 
reported as bitter and insulting to the whites. In conclusion Mr. 
Gordon read the Petersburg resolutions of April 18. to which 
all seemed to subscribe heartily." Influential negroes of Cape 
Charles, Amelia and other counties called similar meetings.** 
This movement seems, however, to have had little success in win- 
ning over the rank and tile of the negroes to the Conservatives. 

In the meanwhile a new and much more important movement, ^ 
the "co-operation" movement, was inaugurated. The purpose of 
this movement was to bring about co-operation between the Con- 
servatives and the Republicans in such a way as to form a new 
Republican organization that would be less extreme than that led 
by Huiiiiicutt. It had the support of the moderate element of 
the Republican party both within and without the State, and was 
supported by many of the most influential Conservatives of \'ir- 
ginia. The resolutions adopted at a meeting in Albemarle county 
in behalf of co-operation show the aims of the co-operators. It 
was resolved, "That having consented in good faith to the re- 
construction of the Southern States under the Sherman-Shella- 
barger I'ill. we consider ourselves bound in honor to the uncon- 
ditional maintenance of the Union of these States, and that we 
regard the welfare of Virginia and of the other Southern States 
as requiring that our people should co-operate with the party 
that will give us (protection for life and property, and believing 
that the Republican party of the United States alone has the 
power to give us protection, we desire to co-operate with them." ^ 
The respectability of the movement is shown by the names of 
those connected with it. Among those appointed on the com- 
mittee of resolutions at the Albemarle meeting were Col. John 
J. Bocock, William T. Early, W. F. Gordon, W. H. Southall. J. 
R. Barksdale, Col. R. T. W. Duke. Dr. A. G. Dabney and Dr. 
W. C. N. Randolph.^" There were similar co-operation con- 



' The Richmond Disf'atcli, April 24, 1867. 

* The Richmond DisMtch, April 25, 1867. 

° The Richmond Enquirer, July 2, 1867. 

" The Richmond Whig, July 3, 1867. 

—3 



34 PHKLPS-STOKES FKLLOWSHIP PAPERS 

ventions in a number of other counties of the State, and by the 
end of July, 1867. co-operation had gained considerable impor- 
tance.^^ 

Throughout the whole campaign of 1867 the extreme radical- 
ism of the Radical Republicans in Virginia gave much concern 
to moderate Republicans everywhere. The New York Tribune 
of April 12. 1867.1- made this comment on the subject: "Far 
be it from us to advise a campaign of bitterness. We do not pro- 
pose to influence the negro by exciting in his mind a hatred of 
his former masters. Nor should we advise any organization 
antagonistic to those masters. Agitators like Mr. Hunnicutt, of 
X'irginia, may mean well, but their zeal is bitter and offensive. 
To organize a campaign on the Hunnicutt plan is to abandon any 
hope of a permanent Union party in the South. We cannot af- 
ford to array the white against the black, or the black against 
the white." 

In April, Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, came to Virginia 
in order to deliver his party from the Hunnicutt element, and to 
form a respectable Republican party around the old Union men 
and former Whigs.i-' He did not succeed, however, in disturb- 
ing the Hunnicutt organization. In fact he was too conservative 
for the Radicals and too radical for the Conservatives. He also 
seemed to have had an exaggerated idea of the number of men 
in Virginia who had been true to the Union during the war, and 
was not as careful as he might have been in his utterances be- 
fore and during his visit to the State. He had the support of 
John Minor Botts, who had attempted at an early date to or- 
ganize a conservative Republican party in Virginia. 

After registration had begun in March. 1867, the freedmen 
became more and more engrossed in politics. The Union League 
and the Radical agitators, of whom there were not a few from 
the North at this time, had the negroes completely under their 
control. According to General Allen, its Grand Deputy in Vir- 



" H. J. Eckenrode, Political History of Virginia during Reconstruc- 
tion, p. 75. 

" Quoted in the Richmond Dispatch, April 15, 1867. 

" The Richmond Dispatch, April 22, 1867; The Richmond Enquirer, 
April 23, 1867. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA rOLIi'lCS 35 

ginia, the Union League was "a system of night school in which 
they (the negroes) were instructed in the privileges of citizen- 
ship and the duties they owed to the party which had made ihem 
free and given them exercise of suffrage." ^' Largely as a re- 
sult of this political excitement among the freedmen, lahor be- 
came increasingly more unsatisfactory. ^■'' 

On March 20. 1867, the Republican State Central Committee 
called a State convention to meet in the African Church in Rich- 
mond on April 17. About half of the counties (49) were rep- 
resented. Of the two hundred and ten delegates present at this 
convention only fifty were white. H'he assembly was entirely 
under the control of Ilumiicutt. who l)oasted in a bitter s.peech 
to the delegates that "The rebels have forfeited all their rights, 
and we will see that they never get them back." '•"• The negro 
delegates took an active part in the discussions and made some 
very inflammatory speeches. They even surpassed their white 
leaders in advocating extreme measures against the native 
whites. They advocated confiscation almost unanimously. On 
the second day of its session the convention resolved itself into 
a great mass-convention of negro and white Radicals in the Cap- 
itol Square. There was considerable disorder at both meetings 
of the convention. There were numerous calls for the confisca- 
tion of "rebel" lands, cheers for Thaddeus Stevens, condemna- 
tions of President Johnson and of the "rebel aristocracy," and 
disputes between the delegates. A few of the cooler heads 
among the freedmen counseled moderation. Fields Cook, of 
Richmond, reminded his people that the whites still had a ma- 
jority in the State and that harmony would be wisest. Several 
other colored speakers gave the same advice, but none of them 
were heeded by the crowd of excited negroes. Similar local 
Radical conventions were held in the State at a number of 
places. ^" with the same disquieting results. 



" H. J. Eckenrode, Political Ilistflry of l'ir:^iui(i di'iin^ Reconstruc- 
tion, p. 61. 

" The Richmond Iluquircr. April 18, 1863; Ricliniond Dispatch, July 
8, 1867. 

'" The Richmond DisMt^'l', April 18. 1867. 

" Applcton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1867. p. 750. 



36 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

The efifect of all this radical propaganda upon the ignorant 
freedmen is clearly seen in the riots and general restlessness 
among them during the spring and summer of 1867, especially 
in the latter part of April and during May. 

Near the end of April, four negroes insisted upon their right 
to ride upon a street car in Richmond and were taken olT by the 
police. I'* A riot was narrowly averted. The city recorder ruled 
that the car company could make such regulations as it chose 
concerning those who should ride on its cars. But the president 
of the company decided to remove the restrictions from the col- 
ored people. 

On Tuesday, May 6, 1867, the United States Circuit Court 
convened in Richmond. Judge John C. Underwood presided. 
It was an interesting event and well calculated to produce uneas- 
iness among the white people of the State. In the first place 
the Judge, Underwood, was one of the most bitter and unscrupu- 
lous carpetbaggers in Virginia politics. And in the second place 
negroes served on jury for the first time in the history of the 
State.^'' This event was unfortunate, especially at this time, as 
it produced in the minds of the untutored freedmen an exag- 
gerated estimate of their own importance in political afifairs, and 
increased the friction already existing between the races at this 
time. Nor was Judge Underwood's fiery charge to the grand 
jury of such a nature as to promote harmony between the dif- 
ferent elements in the State. -^ 



V 



'' The Richmond Dispatch, April 25, 1867. 

" There were six colored grand jurors, George Seaton, Cornelius 
Liggon Harris, George Sinims, Fields Cook, John Oliver and Dula- 
ney Beckley. The Richmond Dispatch, May 7, 1867; the Richmond 
Enquirer, May 7, 1867. 

*' This charge was in part as follows: "Gentlemen of the Grand 
Jury, — The circumstances surrounding us demand devout thanksgiv- 
ing to Almighty God that we, the friends and representatives of the 
Government of the United States, who last year were threatened 
with destruction and hunted by assassins in this city for attempting 
to execute the laws of our country, can now meet in conscious se- 
curity under the wings of the starry banner which our patriotic 
Congress has raised for our protection; and we are permitted to 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 2)7 

On Friday, May 10, fourteen white and twelve colored men 
were summoned as petty jurors of the Circuit Court. -^ It was 
before a mixed jury chosen from among these men that the no- 



meet in this building of everlasting granite, so emblematic of the 
power and strength of our Government, standing alone and un- 
harmed amid the general conflagration that swept as with a besom 
of destruction all around it. 

"And what solemn associations are suggested by reflecting that 
in the very rooms we now occupy dwelt the fiery soul of treason, 
rebellion and civil war, and hence issued that fell spirit which starved, 
by wholesale, prisoners For the crime of defending the flag of our 
common country, assassinated colored soldiers for their noble and 
trusting labors in behalf of a Government that had as yet only prom- 
ised them protection, burned towns and cities with a barbarity un- 
known to Christian countries, scattered yellow fever and small pox 
among the poor and helpless, and finally, struck down one of earth's 
noblest martyrs to freedom and humanity. 

"Another subject of thanksgiving is presented in the very consti- 
tution of your body, furnishing ocular evidence that the age of caste 
and class cruelty is departed, and a new era of justice and equality, 
breaking through the clouds of persecution and prejudice, is now 
dawning over us. And strangest of all, that this city of Richmond 
should be the spot of earth to furnish this gracious manifestation. 
Richmond, the beautiful and abandoned seat of the rebellion, look- 
ing as comely and specious as a goodly apple on a gilded sepulchre, 
where bloody treason flourished its whips of scorpions; Richmond, 
where the slave trade so long held high carnival; where the press 
has found the lowest depth of profligacy; where licentiousness has 
ruled until probably a majority of births were illegitimate, or with- 
out the forms of law; * * * But we are reminded that 'where 
sin aboundeth grace may much more abound.' And in the light of 
recent changes, may we not hope a material and moral future fcr 
this city of Richmond in strong contrast with its awful and atheistic 
past, and in harmony with the salubrity of its climate, the poetic 
beauty of its scenery and the magnitude of its water power. * * * 
I am truly gratified to find so many gentlemen of public and private 
worth upon the present jury." The Richmond Disfatcli, May 7, ISfw; 
the Richmond Enquirer, May 7, 1807. 

" The colored men summoned were as follows: Joseph Cox. J. 
B. Miller. Edward Fox, Lewis Lindsay, Albert Brooks. Andrew Lil- 
ley, Lewis Carter, Landrum Boyd. Fred Smith, Dr. Walter Snead. 
John Freeman and Thomas Lucas. 



38 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

torious Judge Underwood summoned Jefiferson Davis to appear, 
after his two years' confinement at Fortress Monroe.-- 

On the same day that Judge Underwood summoned his men 
for the petty jury, a mob of negroes attacked several policemen 
and rescued one of their number who had been taken into cus- 
tody for disorderly conduct. Several policemen were badly in- 
jured and a number of others were in danger from a shower of 
stones thrown at them by the mob. The spirit of the mob was 
shown by a remark of one of its number who said, "We got 
Judge Underwood here now; we gwine to do what we please. 
He'll protect us." They were having the difficulty of newly 
emancipated peoples in not being able to distinguish between 
liberty and license. Having been freed from one kind of re- 
straint, they were loth to recognize any restraint. After the 
mob had refused to obey the Mayor's order to disperse. General 
Schofield appeared and requested them to go to their homes. 
When they refused to go, he had a regiment of soldiers disperse 
the mob. 

On the next day, May 11, a negro mob attempted to take from 
the police a negro who had 'been arrested for being drunk and 
disorderly. The officers were stoned and fired upon. Federal 
troops were again called out to rescue the police, and order was 
finally secured by General Schofield by stationing soldiers 
throughout the city. 

It is not without its signfiicance that on the day of the last 
attack on the police one Zedekiah K. Hayward, a prominent 
agitator from New England, ^^ was arrested, with the approba- 
tion of General Schofield, charged with inciting the negroes to 
"acts of violence, insurrection and war." -^ After having urged 
the freedmen to assert their rights of equality in all things and 



- The Richmond Dispatch, May 13, 1867. 

^ Hayward was a native of New Hampshire. After leaving Dart- 
mouth College in disgrace, he went to live in Massachusetts. He 
afterwards left Massachusetts and after wandering about for a time 
turned up in Richmond as a philanthropist. The Washington Na- 
tional InteUigcnccr, cited in the Richmond Dispatch, May 20, 1867. 

'* The Richmond Dispatch, May 13, 1867; the Richmond Enquirer, 
of the same date. 



THE NEGRO IN VIKC.IMA POLITICS 39 

to "have high carnival" as soon as their white alhes had left the 
State, he added, "It is useless for me to advise you what to do, 
for great masses generally do what they have a mind to." -•'• 

Throughout the summer months of 1867 the political excite- 
ment in \irginia increased. Botts, Pierpont and other conserva- 
tive Republicans refused to recognize the authority of the Re- 
publican convention of April 17, on the ground that it was not 
representative of the party of the State. A call was therefore 
made for a new convention to meet on July 4, L867, in Charlottes- 
ville to organize the Republican party of the State.-" This call 
was signed by o\er three hundred men, many of whom were na- 
tive Virginians of prominence, for the most part former Whigs. 
The movement was entirely independent of the llunnicntt fac- 
tion and therefore threatened to disrupt the Rei)ublican party 
in \'irginia. 

At this juncture the Republican leaders in Congress called 
upon the Union League clubs in several of the Northern cities 
to bring about harmony between the two factions of the party in 
Virginia. As a result, the leaders of both factions met with the 
mediators from the North in the Governor's home in Richmond 
on June 16, 1867.-' The Hunnicutt faction made it plain that it 
would not participate in the Charlottesville convention. .\s a 
compromise it was decided to ha\e another convention at Rich- 
mond. It was to meet on August 1, and a party platform was to 
be made to take the place of that of A])ril 17. Since Richmond 



"'' To add to the general confusion all the negro coopers of Rich- 
mond struck for higher wages during this week. 

Gerritt Smith and Horace Greely, who were visiting Richmond 
at this time, made speeches to the negroes urging them to desist 
from idleness and drunkenness. The Richmond Dispatch, May 14, 
1867, Ibid., May 16, 1867. For an account of the riots mentioned 
above see the Richmond Dispatch and the Riclimond Enquirer of May 
11, 13, 14, 15, 16. 

'° The Richmond Enquirer, May 21, 1867. 

"" Among those present were. Governor Pierpont. John M. Botts, 
Judge Underwood, J. VV. Hunnicutt, John Hawxl'urst. L. H. Clian- 
dler, Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, John Jay, oi Xew York and 
other prominent poHticians. H. J. Hckenrode, Political History of 
Virginia during Rcconstructio)i, p. 7."!. 



40 PHElvPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

had succeeded Alexandria as the Radical center of the State, 
Ilunnicutt had won a decided victory over the more conservative 
faction of the party. With the freedmen to back him it would 
be easy to control a convention in Richmond. 

The co-operation movement rapidly gained strength during 
luly and August. The co-operators accepted negro suffrage but 
hoped to gain the leadership over them and thus avoid the dan- 
gers of Radical Reconstruction. But the white and colored Rad- 
icals in speeches throughout the State were advocating extreme 
social and political equality. Some went even further. One of 
the most prominent negro Radicals of Virginia, Lewis Lindsay, 
in a bitter speech at Charlottesville in July, 1867, stated that the 
negroes intended to elect a part of the legislature, the members 
of Congress and the Governor of the State; and that appoint- 
ments should always be equally made between the two races. ^^ 
The freedmen had become more radical than their white teach- 
ers. The possibility of the more conservative faction of the Re- 
publican party gaining their support no longer existed, if it ever 
did exist. Co-operation was doomed. 

On the day before the meeting of the Republican convention 
of August L 1867, the conservative faction of the delegates met 
and approved of a platform, presented by John Minor Botts, 
which condemned secession as a crime, advocated the enfran- 
chisement of all Confederates but their leaders and the punish- 
ment of the latter. 

The Republican convention met on August 1, 1867, at the Afri- 
can Church in Richmond. It was a great event for the freedmen 
of the city. By ten o'clock they had left the tobacco factories 
and the streets, and were crowded around the church. At eleven 
o'clock the doors were opened and the negroes crowded in. 
Many county delegates, both white and colored, were excluded 
from the building. The only whites that were admitted were the 
fifty Radical delegates who had attended the April convention. 
The convention was called to assemble at twelve o'clock. In the 
meanwhile 1 lunnicutt harangued the crowd. lie expressed his 
disapproval of the conservative Republicans and co-operators in 



Charlottesville Chronicle, July 2, 1867. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 41 

no uncertain terms, and warned his followers against the "rebels" 
who were "'seeking admission into the council of the Republican 
party." "Xow," he said, "we tell the strangers that if they want 
to come with us they will have to swallow a bitter pill. They 
must swallow the Constitutional Amendment, the Civil Ric,'hts 
Bill, the Shermau-Shellabarger-Wilson liill, the Supplementary 
Bills, every Reconstruction Act, the Iron-clad Oath, the 17th of 
April platform, W'ardwell, Ilunnicutt, and the nigger; yes, the 
nigger — his head, his feet, his hide, his hair, his tallow, his bones, 
and his suet ! Nay, his body and soul ! Yes, all these they nuist 
swallow, and then, perhaps, they can be called Republicans." -"•' 
The main duty of the conxention, he said, was to endorse the 
platform of the April convention. This was promptly done. 

Those who could find no place in the African Church assembled 
in "mass convention" in the Capitol Sciuare. John llawxhurst, 
a Radical, was made chairman. A motion to invite John Minor 
Botts to address the convention was voted down almost unani- 
mously. The conservative Republicans were again ignored and 
the April platform was adopted.-"'" 

At eight o'clock that night there was a meeting in the hall of 
the House of Delegates of members of the convention and oth- 
ers who were dissatisfied with the action of the double "mass 
convention" of the African Church and the Capitol Square. 
Fields Cook, a colored politician w ith conser\ative leanings, was 
in the chair. They decided not to form an independent organi- 
zation but to do their best to promote harmony in the Republi- 
can ranks. Hunnicutt and his followers held a meeting at the 
same time in Republican Ilall.-''^ 

On its second and last day the convention met in the west end 
of Capitol Square. Much radical talk was indulged in, and 
Hunnicutt in a characteristic speech advocated the disfranchise- 
ment of all "rebels." The meetings of the convention were \ery 

^ The Richmond Dispatch. August 2, 1867; also Riclimond Enquirer 
of the same date. 

This is a type of lluiinicutt's speeches and of tFe Radical speeches 
of that time. 

'' The Richmond Pisf^ntch. August :.', 1867. 

" The Richmond Dispatch, August 2, 1867. 



42 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

disorderly on both days. As a rule the Radical conventions, 
which were chiefly made up of freedmen, were disorderly. The 
freedmen and their leaders had not acquitted themselves well in 
the eyes of the country, and had done the cause of universal 
suffrage no good. Furthermore the Republican conventions of 
April 17 and of August 1 increased the freedmen's love for the 
outward forms of politics, gave them a high opinion of their 
own importance in political affairs, made them more independ- 
ent of their former leaders and made them more extreme in 
their radicalism. In some places they now refused to admit 
whites to the Union League and even formed armed organiza- 
tions. ^^ 

The tumultuous convention of August 1, 1867 marks the 
turning point in the political history of the negro in Virginia. 
Although the attempt to bring the colored vote under the influ- 
ence of the conservative whites through fair means was not 
abandoned until several years later, the color line became hence- 
forth sharply drawn in politics with the negroes supporting the 
least reputable factions, in the respective campaigns. The rep- 
utable whites who wished to co-operate with them were ignored 
and insulted. Negro suffrage had come to mean carpetbagism 
and radicalism. That negro suffrage had come to stay was ac- 
cepted by all. The whites were anxious to compromise in such 
a way as not to draw the color line. Had the negroes been 
content with the suffrage and conservative white leadership, in- 
stead of allying themselves with carpetbaggers and scalawags, 
advocating confiscation and disfranchisement for the whites, 
and seeking office before they were fitted for responsibilities of 
that kind, much bitterness and disillusionment in politics might 
have been spared them. But under the circumstances it was 
natural that they should have acted as they did. They had just 
been freed from slavery and were eager to enter into all the 
privileges of their new estate. Politics, with its excitement, its 
conxcntions and s]:)eech-making, was very fascinating to these 



"^ \V. L. Fleming, Docn)iicntary History of Reconstruction, No. 3, 
p. 4; Richmond Enquirer, September 6, 1867; H. J. Eckenrode, Po- 
litical History of J'^irgiiiia diirini^ Reconstruction, p. 79. 



TH1-: NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 43 

childlike people. The franchise was given them as a kind of 
panacea for all their troubles. High hopes and ambitions im- 
possible of attainment were held out to them by more or less 
unscrupulous demagogues. Furthermore, the Radical leaders 
represented the /party that had been most instrumental in free- 
ing them from slavery at the cost of much blood and treasure, 
and who were then in complete control of the Federal govern- 
ment. Then there were the Freedmen's Bureau and the Union 
League. 

During August, September, and October, nominations were 
made throughout the State for delegates to the constitutional 
convention which would meet in December, if the act calling it 
were not defeated at the polls. Political excitement continued. 
Many freedmen abandoned themselves to the attendance upon 
poHtical meetings, and labor was harder than ever to obtain. 
The Conservatives had no organized party in the State and not 
a few were apathetic towards politics. Many of their most in- 
fluential men had been disfranchised by the "test oath" require- 
ment of the act of Congress of July 9, 1867. The Radicals, on 
the other hand, were well organized and aggressive.'''* Of the 
Radicals nominated for the convention, about a third were ne- 
groes. Most of the conservative Republican candidates were 
defeated. In Richmond, for example, the names of Governor 
Pierpont, Franklin Stearnes and other prominent Republicans 
who did not follow Hunnicutt were not considered, and the 
great Republican mass-convention nominated instead the white 
Radicals, James Morissey (from Ireland). Judge Underwood 
(from New York), and James W. I hnuiicuU (from South Car- 
olina), and the colored Radicals. James Cox and Lewis Lind- 
say.^'* When the conservative Republicans attempted to hold 



^ The words "Republican" and "Radical" were used synonymously 
during this period. The Radical party in the State was niadc up 
of most of the negroes, Northern adventurers (the carpetbaggers) 
and a few native whites (the scalawags). The Conservatives did not 
really form a party in the strict sense of the won until later. They 
were the great mass of white people and a few conservative negroes. 

^* The Richmond Enquirer, October 1.j. 1867. 



44 PHKLPS-STOKES FELUOWSIIIP PAPERS 

a meeting to consider the nomination of a special ticket, a mob 
of freedmen prevented them. The consen^ative Repubhcans 
were too few to have any influence in the campaign. 

The election to decide whether there should be a constitutional 
convention and to elect delegates to the convention (should 
there be one) took place during October 18 to 21, 1867. Gen- 
eral Schofield and his subordinate officers tried conscientiously, 
it seems, to have fair elections. However, the Commanding 
General was justly criticized for reopening the polls another 
day in some of the black wards in Richmond in order to give 
the freedmen a longer time in which to vote. This resulted in 
changing the outcome of the election in one precinct.-^'' 

The returns of the election of 1867 are very interesting in 
showing the thoroughness of the organization of the negroes 
under Radical leaders, and the unmistakable race line between 
Radicals and Conservatives. Of the 120,101 white registrants, 
44,017 did not vote. Of the 105,832 colored registrants, only 
12,687 did not vote. Only 14. 833 of the 76,084 white regis- 
trants that voted were for a constitutional convention ; and out 
of 92,507 blacks that voted, all but 638 were for a convention.^^ 
The large negro vote polled indicates the efficiency of the Radi- 
cal machinery. The colored voters were not only marshalled to 
the polls but were also instructed how to vote. Their leaders 
and secret societies saw to it that those who desired to vote for 
Conservative delegates were prevented by threats, ostracism or 



^ Documents of the Coustitittio>ial Convention of I'irginia, 18G7-1868. 

^° Hundreds of the best white men of the State voted for the con- 
vention. The Richmond Disf'atch was of the opinion that until two 
weeks before tlie election a majority of the whites in the State in- 
tended to vote for a convention. A number of the most conservative 
and representative papers in the State had expressed themselves in 
favor of calling a convention. Among these were, the Lynchburg 
News, the Norfolk Journal and Daybook, the Richmond IVhig, the 
Richmond Dispatch and several papers of the Southwest. See the 
Richmond Dispatch, October 30, 1867. For the returns of the elec- 
tion, see Documents of the Constitutional Convention of J'irginia, 1867, 
Document Xo. 5, pp. 51, 53 (the number of registrants by race and 
county is also shown in this document). 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 



45 



open ^■iolence."' \\ liile there was a very decided color line in 
the vote on calhng the convention — especially on the side of the 
hlacks — there was an almost ahsolute color line between Con- 
servatives and Radicals in the choice of delegates. The north 
ern and western counties, those having a minority of negroes, 
elected native white Conservatives : and the more populous cen- 
tral and eastern counties, where negroes were in the majority, 
elected white and colored Radicals. A contest was now in 
progress between the white race and the black race. In Rich- 
mond, now the headquarters of the white Radicals, there were 
registered 5,382 whites and 6.284 blacks. The vote oti the 
candidates for the convention was as follows :-'^ 

FOR CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES. 



White vote Colored vote 



Johnson . 
Sturdivant 
Taylor . .•. 
Evans . . . 
Sands . . . , 



4,772 


25 


4,767 


21 


4,785 


26 


4,760 


21 


4,788 


23 



FOR RADICAL CANDIDATES. 



White vote Colored vote 

Hunnicutt 48 5.168 

Underwood 48 5,169 

Morissey 48 5.169 

Lindsay (colored) 48 5.169 

Cox (colored) 48 5,169 



Edgar Allen, one of the most prominent Radicals, was elected 
from Prince Edward county entirely by negroes, with the ex- 



" Documents of the Constitutional Conventiov of lirginia, 1867, 
Document No. 1, pp. 22-23; the Richmond Dishitcli, December 12, 
1867. 

" The Richmond Disf^atch. October .-^O, 1867. 



46 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

ception of one white vote.^'-^ These are but fair examples of 
what took place throughout the black belt. 

Of the 105 delegates elected to the convention, 35 were Con- 
servatives, 65 were Radicals, and the remaining 5 were doubt- 
ful. This overwhelming victory of the Radicals greatly in- 
creased their confidence and dismayed the whites. Bitterness 
increased. Finally the Radical leader, Hunnicutt, was arrested 
by the civil authorities in November on the charge of attempt- 
ing to stir up insurrection among the negroes by an incendiary 
speech that he had delivered during the fall campaign.'**^ He 
was released, however, on bail by the military authorities until 
after the adjournment of the constitutional convention. Al- 
though the Conservatives had laid the blame of the attitude of 
t)ie negroes in politics upon such white Radical leaders as Hun- 
nicutt, they now began to attribute to the negroes a fair share 
of the blame for the unhappy situation. Race relations became 
more unsatisfactory. 

As a result of the campaign of 1867 the Conservative party 
was formed. Prior to December, 1867, the Repu]:)lican, or Rad- 
ical party was the only organized political party in the State 
since the War of Secession. It was not until the white people 
of \'irginia had seen the negroes marshalled in a body against 
them by their Radical leaders, that they determined to organize 
a Conservative, or white man's party to protect themselves 
against the rule of demagogues and their horde of ignorant fol- 
lowers. '♦^ The leaders of the old Democratic and \\ big parties 
of former days issued a call for a State convention of men of 
conservative views to meet in Richmond on December 11, 1867. 
There were eight hundred delegates present at this convention, 



*'' Speech by Edgar Allen quoted in Richmond Whig, April 21, 
1868. 

^" Tie had said, "You colored people have no property. The white 
race has houses and lands. Some of you are old and feeble and 
cannot carry the musket, but you can apply the torch to the dwell- 
ings of your enemies. There are none too young — the boy of ten 
and the girl of twelve can apply the torch." Applcton's Annual Cyclo- 
paedia, 1867, p. 763. 

" The Richmond Pispatch, December 12, 1867.- 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 47 

representing all parts of the State. The convention also repre- 
sented the finest type of Virginia citizens. Among those pres- 
ent were, Alexander H. H. Stuart, ])rcsident of the convention, 
R. M. T. Hunter, j. R. Hranch, William Kemper, Marmaduke 
Johnson and Raleigh T. Daniel. '- 

In his inaugural address Mr. Stuart expressed the views and 
aims of those present, in fact of the white people of X'irginia, 
when he said, "At the close of the war, we were assured that 
upon the repeal of the ordinance of secession, the repudiation 
of the Confederate debt and the emancipation of the slaves, we 
would be restored to our rights in the I'nion ; but instead of 
these promises being fulfilled, a policy has l>ecn inaugurated 
placing the Southern States under the control of our inferior 
race. We have met to appeal to the North not to i)ermit the 
infliction of this disgrace upon us. Our rights may be wrested 
from us, but we will never submit to the rule of an alien and 
inferior race. We prefer the rule of the bayonet . . . We de- 
sire further to perfect our organization so that all who desire 
that this shall continue to be a white man's government may be 
able to act in concert and by a vigorous and united effort save 
ourselves from ruin and disgrace." "*'^ 

This address contained the main features of the set of resolu- 
tions adopted by the con\ention. It was resolved: (1) That 
slavery had been abolished, and that it was "not the purpose or 
desire of the people of Virginia to reduce or subject again to 
slavery the people emancipated;" (2) that the State should 
be restored to Federal relations with the United States 
government and that the people of X'irginia would not vio- 
late or impair her obligations to the Federal Govermnent but 
would "perform them in good faith;" (^) tliat the people of the 
State were entitled to all the rights and privileges guaranteed 
to them by the constitution of the L'nited States; (4) that "to 
subject the white people of these States to the absolute su- 



" The Richmond Enquirer, and the Riclimond W'lig, December 12, 
1867; the Richmond Dispatch, December 12, and 13, 1867 (list of del- 
egates in Dispatch, December 12). 

*^ The Richmond Enquirer, December 12, 1867. 



43 PIIELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPHKS 

premacy, in their local governments and in their representation 
in the Senate and the House of Representatives, of the black 
race just emerged from personal servitude — is abhorrent to the 
civilization of mankind, and involves us and the people of the 
Northern States in the consequences of surrendering one-third 
of the Senate and one-quarter of the House of Representatives, 
which are to legislate over us. to the domination of an organized 
class of emancipated slaves, who are without any of the train- 
ing, habits, or traditions of self-government;" (5) that "this 
convention, for the people of X'irginia. doth declare that they 
disclaim all hostility to the black population ; that they sincerely 
desire to see them advance in intelligence and material pros- 
perity, and arc willing to extend to them a liberal and generous 
protection. But that while, in the opinion of this convention, 
any constitution of Virginia ought to make all men equal before 
the law, and should protect the liberty and property of all, yet 
this convention doth distinctly declare that the governments of 
the States and of the Union were formed by white men to be 
subject to their control ; and that suffrage should be so regu- 
lated by the States as to continue the Federal and State systems 
under the control and direction of the white race:" and (6) that 
the people of Virginia would co-operate with all men regardless 
of party in restoring the constitutional union of the States and 
the continuance of the government under the control of the 
white race."*"* 

It is obvious from these resolutions and from the party or- 
ganization effected at this time that lines of party and of race 
had become definitely fixed for the first time by the whites of 
Virginia since the war, and that a new and aggressive white 
man's party, the Conservative party, was ready to oppose the 
Radical (Republican), or black man's party. Attempts to com- 
promise, for the time at least, were at an end. 

After the passage of the Reconstruction Acts in March 1867, 
the white people of the State accepted negro suffrage as inevita- 
ble, whatever they may have thought of its wisdom at that time. 
They were anxious for peace and would ha\e accepted the new 



Current newspapers; Annual Cyclof'acdia, 1867, p. 763. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA I'OLITICS 49 

conditions of defeat without opposition had the Ra(h(.als in Con- 
gress and in the State not continued to persecute them. The 
State was placed under mihtary rule ; its leading men, all those 
who had had any experience in administration, were disfran- 
chised and disqualified from holding office; its people were 
threatened with new punishments and humiliations ; and to the 
uncertainty and dread caused by the action of Congress was 
added the agitation among the negroes by unscrupulous out- 
siders. In spite of these discouragements the whites attempted 
to win the confidence and leadership of the negroes and to co- 
operate with the best elemt-nt in the Rcpul)licaii party in bring- 
ing the State back into the I'nion upon a firm, conservative ba- 
sis. But the Republican party, which was for the most part rad- 
ical in X'irginia. was the victorious party in the Union which hcl<l 
the reins of government. Wy means of the Freedmen's iUireau 
and the I'nion League it gained com])lete control over the freed- 
men from the beginning, and increased its hold upon them by 
vague promises of land and of office. The Radical program 
consisted not only of extending all civil and political rights to 
all freedmen, but also of excluding all but a few whites (Radi- 
cals) from the franchise and from office. The ]nir]>ose of the 
Radicals was made clear in the speeches of their leaders, llun- 
nicutt, Underwood and others, and in the conduct of these men 
in the Republican conventions of April 17 and August 1, 18>^)7. 
Compromise and co-operation were no longer possible. Car- 
petbaggers, scalawags and negroes had drawn the color line in 
politics. The whites now organized the Conservative jiarty to 
meet the new situation. 



CHAPTER IV. 
The Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868. 

In accordance with the order of the Commanding General of 
the District the convention assembled in the hall of the Honse 
of Delegates of the capitol on December 3, 1867. The election 
of October resulted in the choice of the most heterogeneous and 
remarkable assortment of lawmakers that ever assembled in the 
Commonwealth. There were native Virginians, white and col- 
ored, and men from beyond her borders ; there was a delegate, 
a Northerner, who had commanded a company of negro troops 
in the Federal army against the people of the State ; there was 
a deserter from the Confederate army ; there were adventurers ; 
there were ex-slaves ; there were educated men, and ignorant 
men who could speak the English language only in dialect. A 
contemporaneous account of the personnel of the convention, 
given in the Richmond Dispatch of April 20, 1868, is as fol- 
lows : 

"The Convention consisted of one hundred and five members, of 
whom some thirty-five were Conservatives, some sixty-five were 
Radicals, and the remainder doubtful. The Radicals were composed 
of twenty-five negroes, fourteen native-born white Virginians, thir- 
teen Xew Yorkers, one Pennsylvanian, one member from Ohio, one 
from Maine, one from Vermont, one from Connecticut, one from 
South CaroHna, one from Maryland, one from the District of Co- 
lumbia, two from England, one from Ireland, one from Scotland, 
one from Nova Scotia, and one from Canada. Of the fourteen white 
Virginians belonging to this party, some had voted for secession, 
others had been in the Confederate service, others were old men 
whose sons had been in the Confederate army; hardly one had a 
Union record. A large proportion of the Northerners and foreign- 
ers had drifted here in some non-combatant capacity."^ 



' For the names of the carpetbagger delegates see the Richmond 
Enquirer, April 11, 18G8. The following negro delegates were elected 
to the convention: 

William H. Andrews, Isle of Wight, Surry; James D. Barrett, 
Fluvanna; Dr. Thomas Bayne, Norfolk city; James W. D. Bland, 

50 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA TOLITICS 51 

The officers of the convention were equally as miscellaneous a 
group. The convention had as its chairman John C. Underwood 
of New York, and has been known in history, therefore, as the 
"Underwood Convention," and the constitution that it made, as 
the "Underwood Constitution;" its secretary and sergeant-at- 
arms were from Maryland ; the stenographer, an Irishman, was 
lately from Maryland ; the assistant clerk was from New Jersey ; 
the chaplain was from Illinois ; the two doorkeepers were negroes ; 
the boy pages, with one exception, were negroes or sons of 
Northern men or foreigners ; and the clerks of the twenty stand- 
ing committees, with t\'o or three exceptions, were Northern men 
or negroes. - 

The most prominent of the white Radicals were John C. Un- 
derwood, Judge Edward Snead, John Hawxhurst, Edgar Allen, 
Charles H. Porter and David B. White. The leading negro Ra'l- 
icals were Thomas Bayne, Lewis Lindsay and William A. 
Hodges. Several negro delegates took active part in most of the 
debates. Dr. Bayne of Norfolk was particularly garrulous. 

The Conservatives were led by John L. Marye, Jr.. and Eus- 



Prince Edward; William Breedlove. .Middlesex, Essex; John Brown. 
Southampton; David Canada. Halifax; James B. Carter, Chesterfield. 
Powhatan; Joseph Cox, Richmond city; William A. Hodges, Prin- 
cess Anne; Joseph R. Holmes. Charlotte. Halifax; Peter K. Jones, 
Greenesville, Sussex; Samuel F. Kelso. Campbell; Lewis Lindsay, 
Richmond city; Peter G. Morgan. Petersburg city; William S. Mose- 
ley, Goochland; Frank Moss. Buckingham; Edward Nelson. Char- 
lotte; Daniel M. Norton, James City. York; John Robinson. Cum- 
berland; James T. S. Taylor, Albemarle; George Teamoh. Norfo.k 
(county), Portsmouth city; Burwell Toler. Hanover. Henrico; John 
Watson, Mecklenburg; F. W. Poor. Orange. 

Thomas Bayne. a dentist, was a runaway slave from the South 
who had been a resident of Boston for a number of years; Hodges 
was born in Virginia, but had been living in New York; Poor was 
from New York. In many cases a county had both white and col- 
ored delegates. 

Of the thirty-five white Conservatives, one refu.-ed to serve, one 
was excluded from the convention by the Radicals, and one was ex- 
pelled by them. 

= The Richmond Distatch. April 20. 1868. 



52 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

tace Gibson. Most of them were new men in the pohtical af- 
fairs of the State. There was no lack of abihty among them, 
however. Although hopelessly in the minority, they served as a 
check upon the majority, and they were ready to investigate and 
to expose any false or dishonest move on the part of the Radicals. 
Whenever there was a division among the Radicals on account 
of the extreme measures of the negroes and their white allies, 
they were enabled to aid the less extreme faction in defeating 
much obnoxious legislation. Their superior education and mental 
ability gave them an advantage in debate over their opponents 
far in excess of their numerical strength. 

The first few weeks were occupied in organization and in gen- 
eral political discussions, for the most part outside of the prov- 
ince of the convention. For instance much time was spent in 
discussing the Reconstruction policy of Congress. There was a 
long debate over resolutions introduced in the convention ex- 
pressing appro\al of the action of Congress in impeaching Pres- 
ident Johnson. There were other debates equally futile. 

It was not until January that the committees began to make 
their reports and work on the constitution began. When the 
first section of the preamble was brought up for discussion on 
January 6, 1868, James W. D. Bland (colored) moved that in 
place of the word "men" in the clause, "That all men are by 
nature equally free and independent," as reported from the com- 
mittee, be substituted the words "mankind, irrespective of race 
or color." The motion was defeated through the influence of 
Thomas Rayne (also colored) who had pledged himself to his 
constituents that he would "endeavor to aid in making a consti- 
tution that should not have the word black or the word white 
in it." ^ But when the debates over mixed schools were in prog- 
ress, Bayne proposed an amendment to the committee's plan so 
as to place whites and blacks in the same schools. The amend- 
ment failed to get the support of enough Radicals to be adopted, 
in spite of the efforts on the part of the negro delegates, and the 
threats of Bayne, Lindsay. Hodges and others that if it were 



' Debates of the Constitutional Convention of Virginia, 1867, p, 251. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 53 

not supported by the white Radicals the negroes would with- 
draw from the Rei)ublican party.' 

The question that overshadowed all others in the debates of 
the convention was that of suffrage. It was the subject of de- 
bate throughout the session. The first long debate on the sub- 
ject was occasioned by the consideration of that section of the 
bill of rights which affirmed, "That all elections ought to be free; 
and that all men, bearing sufficient evidence of permanent com- 
mon interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the 
right of suffrage." John Hawxhurst moved that this be amended 
by the substitution, "That all elections ought to be free : and that 
all men (not disqualified by crime, insanity or idiocy) have the 
inherent right of suffrage." '' The doctrine of the inherent right 
to vote and to enjoy other political ])rivileges was warmly ui)held 
by the negroes and some of the white Radicals, but it was re- 



* The negroes tlireatened more than once to desert their white 
alHes. On one of these occasions, Bayne. who had made the threat, 
was answered by one of the leading white Radicals in part as fol- 
lows: 

"He [Bayne] makes no recognition of any white men. hut wants 
a party, so far as iiis remarks can be understood, to be composed 
entirely of colored men, in order, as \ suppose, as he thinks, that he 
might be the leader and head of them. I do not say that he would, 
but he might. It is for us to show that there shall be no division 
between these two classes of the Republican party. Tt must be 
clearly known that loyalty must be the only distinction; and I say 
here frankly, that the white loyal men of Virginia cannot get along 
twenty-four hours without the colored men of Virginia; and. I say, 
on the other hand, that the colored men of Virginia cannot get aU ng 
without the white loyal men of Virginia, and T ask if there is any 
one who has the hardihood to deny it. We are all in the ^amc boat 
together. * * * 

"And so shall the colored people and the loyal white men of Vir- 
ginia say, in one chorus, 'Sink or swim, live or die. survive or per- 
ish, we are together, one and indivisible and inseparable, for the 
procuring and perpetuation of civil and political rights to all men, 
of whatever shade or color of skin.' " Debates, p. '>4.5. 

' Documents of the Constitutional Convention of ]'irginia, ISfiT, No. 
XV, pp. 107-109. 



54 PHElvPS-STOKES FEI^LOWSHIP PAPI<;RS 

pudiated by the Conservatives and moderate Radicals. Havvx- 
hurst's motion was defeated by a vote of 47 to 82.6 

On January 14, General B. F. Butler of Massachusetts spoke 
before the convention, upon the invitation of the Radicals. After 
explaining to the convention, in the most paternal fashion, just 
how a constitution should be made, he advised the enfranchise- 
ment of all freedmen and the disfranchisement not only of those 
Confederates who had held civil or military positions but also of 
those who had been prominent in business affairs before and dur- 
ing the war, such as directors of corporations, presidents of 
banks, etc. He advocated an educational test for the franchise 
like that which existed in Massachusetts, not that those who 
could qualify in this manner would be more capable of using 
rightly the ballot, but that such a test would encourage the young 
men of the State to learn to read and write. But he hastened to 
add that he did not think that it would be wise to apply such a 
test at that time or for a number of years. ''I would not apply it 
to a man who has the right to vote at the present time, to save my 
right hand," he said.^ 

Two days later. Judge Underwood, in one of his characteristic 
speeches which was very insulting to the Conservatives, moved 
that all negroes and women be admitted to the suffrage. His 
followers did not approve of woman suffrage, however, and the 
motion was defeated. In the course of the debate John L. Marye 
said that the Radicals, instead of teaching the colored people 
lessons of thrift, honesty and dignity, were encouraging them to 
entertain vain hopes in politics and were deluding them into 
thinking that they could "live without labor and thrive without 
eft'ort." ^ 

Finally provision was made for enfranchising all negroes and 
the attention of the Radicals was centered on the various meas- 
ures introduced for disfranchising the whites, who had been 



" Journal of the Convention, p. 102. 
' Debates of the Convention, p. 435. 

' Debates, p. 458; the Richmond Dispatch, January 17, 1868; the 
Richmond Enquire)', January 17, 1868. 



THE NEGRO IN VIL^iNIA POLITICS 55 

guilty of "complicity with rebellion." ^ As the session drew to a 
close the Radicals grew more insistent upon the disfranchise- 
ment of the whites of the State, and the debates became, accord- 
ingly, more stormy. The majority report of the Committee on 
the Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office i"' was the 
chief subject of debate during March and April. The article, as 
reported by the committee and afterwards adopted by the con- 
vention, disciualified from holding office and from jury service 
practically every white man in the State, and disfranchised sev- 
eral thousand of the most capable white men. The article was 
so amended in the convention as to carry the disfranchisement 
even further than the committee had recommended. iVt the same 
time negroes were given the right to vote without qualification. 
Hunnicutt, fearing that the constitution would be rejected by the 
electorate as then constituted, advocated the disfranchisement of 
thirty thousand more whites than had already been provided for 
in the constitution. ^^ More drastic measures were prevented by 
the alliance of some of the most conservative Radicals, who were 
guided by General Schofield and conservative Republicans at the 
North, with the Conservative delegates. There was also a con- 
sciousness in the minds of the more extreme Radicals that after 
all, the whites were a majority in the State and that it would be 
wiser to be prudent. 

The convention came to a close on April 17, 1868. Its ad- 
journment was made necessary by the refusal of General Scho- 
field to approve any bill providing for the payment of the ex- 
penses of the convention after April 6. During its closing hours 
the constitution was adopted as a whole by a vote of 51 to 36. 
A few Radicals, one of them colored, voted with the Conserva- 
tives against its adoption. 

By the clauses of the constitution disfranchising all ex-officers 



" See for example Documents of the Convention, No. XXVII. 

" This standing committee was composed of seven Radicals, two 
of whom (Bland and Moseley) were colored, an ' four Conservatives, 
one of whom was removed from the committee after his appomt- 
ment. James W. Hunnicutt was its chairman. 

" The Richmond Enquirer, March 4, 1868. 



56 PHELPS-STOKEii -XLLOWSIIIP PAPERS 

of both State and local governments, requiring the test oath as a 
qualification for office, and excluding those thus disfranchised 
and disqualified from jury service, the destiny of the State was 
left in the hands of the densely ignorant freedmen who were 
without experience in government and utterly lacking in the tra- 
ditions of i)olitical morality, a people who by their very nature 
and training had been an easy prey to unscrupulous dema- 
gogues. ^- 

On the day of its adjournment General Schofield appeared be- 
fore the convention and made an earnest plea for the reconsid- 
eration of Article III of the constitution, that referring to the 
franchise and to ofiice holding.^-'' He said : 

"I deem the question of the oath of office of so vital importance, 
that I believe it to be my duty to give m}' views on the subject. It 
has been necessary for me, during the past year, to select register- 
ing officers as well as persons to fill the various civil offices in the 
State. 

"I have been able to find in some counties only one, in others 
two, and others three persons of either race able to read and write 
who could take the test oath. Most of the local offices give very 
small compensation, such that even a laboring man could not afford 
to go to another part of the State for the purpose of accepting them. 
I have no hesitation in saying that it will be practically impossible 
to administer the government under your constitution and with that 
provision, and that the retention of that provision will be fatal to 
the constitution, and probably fatal to those who are responsible for 
the existence of that objectionable feature. I say this, lest some 
of you may be deceived as to the wishes of the people of the coun- 
try at large, or those whom you regard as your friends in Congress. 
They will not and cannot sustain you in going so far beyond what 
is either authorized or required by the acts of Congress. "14 

After his departure General Schofield was bitterly attacked by 
Bayne, Lindsay and others for his advice, and no heed was taken 
of his counsel. 



'* For clauses of the constitution referring to the elective fran- 
chise and qualifications for office, see Appendix No. I. Special at- 
tention is called to Sections 1, 3, 6 and 7 of Article II T. 

" The privilege of the floor was extended to the Commanding 
General and to his staff at the beginning of the session. Journal, 
p. ;52. 

" The Richmond IVhig, April 18, 1868. 



THE NEGRO TX VIRCTXIa I'OIJTICS 57 

In a lettei' to General Grant, written the next day — April 18, 
1868 — General Schofield describes the work of the convention 
and expresses the belief that no satisfactory Union party can be 
organized upon the basis of the present Radical party and its 
constitution in the State, and advises that the consiituti«Mi be al- 
lowed to "fall and die where it is — not to submit it to the people 
at all :"' that a provisional government Ixi organized ; and that, 
after the government could be organized upon a loyal basis, an- 
other convention be called to draw up a constitution "fit to be 
ratified by the i)eople of the State and approved by Congress and 
the country at large." It is his opinion that the negroes and their 
associates would insist upon the unqualified indorsement of the 
constitution, and this, he says, "the respectable whites will not 
give." General Schofield also expresses his fear that the "late 
Convention will be reproduced in the legislature, a large majority 
being either worthless radicals, white and black, or bitter op- 
ponents of reconstruction upon the Congressional plan. The 
danger is that we will have on our hands, not only one big ele- 
phant in the constitution, but a host of little ones in the shape 
of ofificers-elect who are not fit to be installed — a prospect not 
very encouraging, at least." ^'' 

If the Republican Federal ofiicer in command of the District 
was so completely discouraged and disgusted with the progress 
of Reconstruction in X'irginia under the Congressional plan, one 
need scarcely marvel that the respectable white population of 
the State were op])onents of the system of Reconstruction that 
threatened the very existence of their civilization. 

'" In an extract from this letter, General Schofield shows the sp rit 
and purpose of the Radicals of the convention as follows: 

"The same baneful influence that secured the election of a ma- 
jority of ignorant blacks, and equally ignorant or unprincipled 
whites, to the Convention, has proved sufficient to hold them firmly 
to their original purpose. They could only hope to obtain oft.cc by 
disqualifying everybody in the State who is capable of discharging 
official duties, and all else to them was of comparatively slight im- 
portance. Even the question whether their consti'ution will be rati- 
fied or rejected, they treat with indifference. Congress, they say. 
will make it all right anyway." John M. Schofield. rorty-Six Y'cars 
in the Army, p. 400. 



ss 



:? PAPERS 



inent of these v.ere ]\ 

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offices. :/ 

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crease further '.'r : ^ 

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: T : :':red delegates, that 
T :; 7 :f the State would 
disastrous to those that em- 
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.ir vote. In this way the fortv- 
-: -_..--.; ::-:ntie5 of the State, 



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members of the ;:r" ^ 
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1868. For a ; :rr:.ir ; 
qxirer, April 17, l56S. 



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THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA POLITICS 59 

would be under the control of negro office holders and their car- 
petbag allies. The legislature would have been a repetition of 
the convention. These numerous officers were to be elected un- 
der a township system which was copied from that of Xew Eng- 
land and which was entirely unsuited to the sparsely settled 
counties of A'irginia. The number of officers in each count}' was 
increased from about twenty to not less than fort>--eight — all 
elected by popular vote. Most of the principal State officers 
were to be elected by the legislature, which in turn, as General 
Schoheld suggested, might greatly resemble the convention. The 
election, tenure of offi:e and salarj- of judges were placed in the 
hands of the legislature.^" 

A sufficiently convincing illustration of what would have taken 
place had this constitution been adopted in its entirety is found 
in a report of November 21. 1869. of General Stoneman (who 
had succeeded General Schofield as Commanding General of 
District Xumber 1 > to the Adjutant General. i- As the result of 
the Act of Congress of Februan.- 8. 1869. requiring a more 
stringent oath of those elected to office, there were many va- 
cancies in State and local offices, which were at that time filled 
by the Commanding General. According to General Stoneman's 
report, of the 5.446 offices in the State. 2.613 were then vacant. 
Of the officers already appointed many had not accepted, and 



'"' Although these were the most objectionable features of the 
constitution, there were many others that were not welcomed bj" 
the people. The new system of government was more expensive 
and cumbersome than the former one. The provision for a system 
of public free schools before 1876 to take the place of free schools 
for the poor under the '"literary fund" system, though it proved to 
be a blessing, was a great financial burden at that time and was not 
cordially received by many. Voting by ballot which was introduced 
in the place of the old ziza zoct method was considered a cowardly 
and unmanly way of voting, and the secrecy which it encouraged 
was thought to be conducive of fraud. 

** General Schofield was given a place in the ^resident's Cabinet. 
His successor. General Stoneman. was an able and conscientious 
officer. But on account of the increased stringency of his orders 
from Washington he was forced to be more severe in his adminis- 
tration than his predecessor had been. 



60 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

many others would be unable to take the oath of office. Few 
native white X'irginians could take the oath because, as General 
Stoneman said, nearly every one gave "aid, countenance, counsel, 
or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility" to the 
Federal government, "and once having engaged in war, prob- 
ably no portion of the Southern people, old and young, male and 
female, were more earnest in its prosecution." A test oath there- 
fore, such as that required by the Underwood Constitution, 
would have excluded practically the whole white population from 
holding office. After describing the impossibiity of securing of- 
ficers under the oath imposed by Congress, similar to that im- 
posed by the Underwood Constitution. General Stoneman ended 
his report with this striking comment upon the political outlook 
for \'irginia under the proposed constitution : 

"The offices in the state have not been filled by competent per- 
sons; they certainly cannot be filled when the restrictions of any 
one party are to be observed and complied with, as will be the case 
upon the adoption of the proposed constitution, under which it is 
desired by some that the people of Virginia shall be forced to live, 
and to the requirements of which they are expected to consent. "19 

The Underwood Convention of 1867-1868 and the constitu- 
tion which it advocated, taught the people of the North what 
Radicalism meant in \'irginia, and made certain the victory for 
the Conservatives in the compaign of 1869, which brought Vir- 
ginia back into the I'nion, free from Radical-negro rule. 



The Richmond Enquirer, April S. 1869. 



CHAPTER V. 



The COMMITTEIC OF XlN'E. 



The story of the contest in 1868 and 1869 between the Con- 
servatives and the Radicals over the adoption of the Underwood 
Constitution is one of continual changes in the political attitude 
of both parties. The Conservatives became through necessity 
more liberal; and the conservative Republicans became more 
conservative and finally became allies of the Conservative party. 
The Radicals clung to the Underwood Constitution with all of 
its objectionable clauses in spite of the willingness of the Con- 
servatives to compromise. When defeated in the fall of 1869 
they urged Congress to continue military rule in the State and 
to inaugurate a government by Radicals alone. As a result of 
these political alignments the Conservative white party l)ecame 
larger, and the Radical smaller and blacker. Furthermore the 
name "Republican," by which the Radical party continued to call 
itself, became more and more disliked in \'irginia politics. 

During the summer and fall of 1868 there seemed to be but 
two alternatives for the people of \'irginia, the Underwood Con- 
stitution, which meant disfranchisement of the whites and negro 
rule, and the continuance of military rule, which is degrading to 
a peo])le who are accustomed to govern themselves. 

An election to decide whether the constitution was to be 
adopted, and to elect officers under the same, was ordered by the 
convention to be held on June 2, 1868. But General v^chofield 
issued an order on April 24 to the effect that, since Congress had 
not made an appropriation to defray the expenses of an election, 
he had no authority to have carried into effect the ordinance of 
the convention which provided for an election on June 2 And 
since he thought that the constitution with the disfranchising 
clauses would be most harmful to the State, he refused to draw 
on the State treasury for the purpose, as he .ad a right to do.^ 



' John M. Schofield, Forty-Six Years in tlw Army. p. 402 

61 



62. PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

He also advised Congress to have the disfranchising and test 
oath clauses voted on separately. Wells and other extreme 
Radicals appeared before the Reconstruction committee in Con- 
gress to plead for an appropriation for holding the election be- 
fore enough whites would have political disabilities removed 
from them to defeat the Radical aims. But the constitution con- 
tinued to rest peacefully in the pif^/geonhole of the Commanding 
General's desk, and Virginia remained unreconstructed under 
military government until 1870. 

In spite of General Schofield's order of April suspending the 
time of the election indefinitely, the two parties, which had be- 
gun to plan their campaigns soon after the adjournment of the 
convention in April, held conventions during the first two weeks 
of ]\Iay 1868 and nominated candidates for the principal offices 
in the State in case there should be an election at some time dur- 
ing the year. The Radicals nominated for governor an extreme 
and unscrupulous carpetbagger, H. H. Wells.- The Conserva- 
tives nominated R. E. ^^'ithers.^ 

Wells had been appointed temporary governor of Virginia by 
the Commanding General on April 4, 1868. It was believed by 
the Conservatives that Governor Pierpont was removed because 
he was not radical enough to suit the Republicans of the State. 
The real cause of the change seems to have been the desire on 
the part of the Republican managers to bring forward a leader 
who was sufficiently extreme to get the support of the negroes 
and other Radicals but who was superior in ability and respec- 
tability to TIawxhurst and Hunnicutt, who had announced their 
candidacy for the office of governor before the adjournment of 
the constitutional convention and were actively canvassing the 
negro voters. Wells would also receive prestige from his new 



' Wells was a native of New York who had been for many years 
a resident of Michigan. He came to Virginia early in the War of 
Secession as provost-marshal of Alexandria. 

^ The Conservatives nominated James A. Walker for lieutenant- 
governor and John L. Marye, Jr., for attorney-general. The Radi- 
cals nominated J. H. Clements for lieutenant-governor and G. W. 
Booker for attorney-general. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 63 

office which would make the way easy for his nomination on the 
RepubHcan ticket in the next election for governor.^ 

During the remainder of the year after the convention had ad- 
journed, the campaign was conducted vigorously by botli parties. 
The Radicals became more confident of victory and the Conser- 
vatives, more determined to defeat the constitution and to elect 
a Conservative governor. At this time the people of the South 
believed that the intelligent people of the North would not tol- 
erate universal negro suffrage in the South. ° Even the an- 
nouncement by the Republican party, in the summer of 1868, of 
its platform with universal negro suffrage as its cardinal doc- 
trine did not make them lose hope of somehow escaping negro 
sufifrage. Public opinion had been somewhat inclined towards 
negro suffrage as a compromise measure, but it had changed 
during the year of negro domination in politics that had just 
been experienced. This campaign increased the hostility to uni- 
versal negro suffrage. When therefore the elections in the fall 
of 1868 showed the people that Reconstruction could only come 
by the sacrifice of feeling and conviction through the acceptance 



* A. H. H. Stuart, The Restoration of Virginia, pp. 49-50. 

° What 'the people of the State thought of the sentiment of the 
Northern states on this question is seen from an address of the Con- 
servative members of the Constitutional Convention of 1867. The 
following is an extract from this address: 

"Every Northern state which has voted on the subject since the 
close of the War has rejected negro suffrage. Ohio, on a direct 
issue, no later than last fall, did so by a majority exceeding 
50,000. Kansas, Minnesota and Connecticut had previously done 
the same thing. The late Constitutional Convention of New York 
deliberately recoiled from deciding the question. .\nd Michigan, 
hitherto so overwhelmingly Republican, has just voted down her 
new constitution by a majority of :!0,000. because it admitted ne- 
groes to the polls. The census shows that there were only 35.000 
negroes in Ohio in 1860. There could have been only 7,000 negro 
voters in the state, had they been enfranchised. In Michigan there 
are only about 500 male negroes twenty-one years of age. The white 
voters number more than 165,000. And yet this .-tate. where a Re- 
publican governor was elected in 1866 by a majority of 29,o:!S. re- 
fused by some 30,000 majority to let 500 negroes vote." The Rich- 
mond Whig, April 20, 1868; the Richmond Enquirer, same date. 



64 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

of universal negro suffrage with its dangers to their hves, prop- 
erty and civihzation, the outlook for the future seemed most 
gloomy. The apparent hopelessness of the situation and the dis- 
couragement of the people threatened to cause entire inactivity 
in politics among the Conservatives. It was felt that Congress 
was determined to degrade them and that there was no use to 
struggle against the inevitable. What was in store for them was 
no longer an uncertainty since negro suffrage had already been 
tested. 

On December 8, 1868, the bill approving the Underwood Con- 
stitution was passed in the House of Representatives with little 
notice or comment on the part of the members of the House and 
with no protest from the people of X'irginia. Alexander H. H. 
Stuart of Staunton, Mrginia, who had been a close observer of 
affairs in the State and in Congress, had urged one of the organ- 
ized political committees in Richmond to formulate a protest to 
Congress against the approval of the Underwood Constitution. 
But it did not consider such action within its jurisdiction. 

Fortunately for Mrginia. Congress took its recess soon after 
the House of Representatives had approved the constitution. 
Time was thus gained to aid ^Ir. Stuart in the carrying out of a 
scheme which he had already set on foot to rid the constitution 
of its most objectionable features — the test oath, disfranchise- 
ment and county organization clauses — while accepting as a mat- 
ter of necessity universal negro suffrage. This scheme was first 
brought before the people in an article over the signature "Se- 
nex." which appeared in the Richmond U hig and in the Rich- 
mond Dispatch on Christmas Day, 1868. By ^Ir. Stuart's per- 
mission his authorship of the article was made known at the 
same time. He pointed out that there would be military rule 
should the constitution be rejected at the polls, and that a still 
greater calamity would befall the State should the constitution 
be accepted in its entirety. Xegro suffrage was now inevitable 
since public sentiment at the North, as shown by the recent elec- 
tions and by the tone of the press, had changed in this respect. 
He showed that it had become the conviction of a majority of 
the people of that section that negro suffrage was the legitimate. 
if not the necssar}- consequence of emancipation ; and that these 



THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA POLITICS 65 

people had the power to enforce their convictions. It would be 
better, he counseled, to accept negro suffrage in return for a re- 
vision of the Underwood Constitution. He advised the execu- 
tive committee of the Conservative party to call two men of 
"approved wisdom and integrity" from each Congressional dis- 
trict of the State to meet and draw up for the consideration of 
Congress a new constitution which would embody "the universal 
suffrage and universal amnesty proposition in its broadest terms, 
and negro eligibility [to office] to boot!" 

So unprepared were the people of \'irginia for accepting uni- 
versal negro suft'rage, especially after the campaign that had 
just been waged on that issue, that one of the leading Richmond 
papers refused to pubHsh Mr. Stuart's article, and those that did 
publish it did so only on condition that they assume no respon- 
sibility for it whatever. Even Colonel John B. Baldwin, who was 
one of the active and useful advocates of the "Xew Movement," 
as the plan was called, hesitated in joining Mr. Stuart at first 
because he thought that public opinion was not prepared to en- 
tertain so bold a proposition.''' 



' On January 2, 1869, Colonel Baldwin wrote to Mr. Stuart, who 
had just returned from Richmond where he had gone in behalf of 
this movement, a letter in which he said: 

"I apprehend from all I can learn from Bell. Trout and Echols, 
that you found rather a slim showing of sympathy in Richmond, 
and I shall not be surprised if you find the movement entirely ta- 
booed before many daj-s. 

"Our people seem to be in pretty much the same condition they 
were just before the fall of the Confederacy. Everybody looked for 
it and believed it was coming, and yet if any one dared utter his 
thoughts he was set upon and cuffed without mercy. 

"Our people now do not seem to be prepared to discuss, or even 
to consider any plan of dealing with the awful danger which threat- 
ens them, and I very much fear they will be caught as the people 
of old were by the deluge." A. H. H. Stuart, The Restoration of Vir- 
ginia, p. .30. The movement was opposed in the beginning by some 
of the leading politicians of the State. Among these were Henry 
A. Wise (Richmond Enquirer, January 18, 20. 21, -\ 2.3, 1869), Mar- 
maduke Johnson {Enquirer, Januarj' 13), Raleigh T. Daniel {En- 
quirer. February 2, 1869) and War-Governor Fletcher {Enquirer, 
February 17, 1869). 

—5 



66 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

Air. Stuart's article was widely and earnestly discussed. It 
had much influence upon public opinion and prepared the way 
for the events that later transpired. The "New Movement" 
rapidly gained ground as the people began reluctantly to admit 
that what had been said in the "Senex" article was true. 

Through the influence of Air. Stuart a number of leading men 
from all parts of the State met in Richmond on December 31, 
1869 to formulate more definite plans for making the movement 
a success. A committee of nine men was chosen to go to Wash- 
ington in order to acquaint Congress with the true state of af- 
fairs in \'irginia and to save the State from the evils that im- 
pended. Air. Stuart was made chairman. The other members 
were : John B. Baldwin, of Augusta County ; John L. Alarye, Jr., 
of Fredericksburg; James F. Johnson, of Bedford County; W. 
T. Sutherland, of Danville; Wyndham Robertson, of Washing- 
ton County; W. L. Owen, of Halifax County; James Neeson, 
of Richmond, and J. F. Slaughter, of Lynchburg. The New 
Alovement was exceedingly fortunate in having as its founder 
and guiding spirit Alexander H. H. Stuart. He had served his 
state as a member of each branch of the General Assembly, as 
a representative in Congress, as presidential elector, and as Sec- 
retary of the Interior under President Fillmore. He had been a 
Whig and a strong Union man before the War.'^ His mental 
and moral worth was well known and respected, and the success 
of his scheme was largely due to the high regard in which he was 
held. 

At the time that the Committee of Nine was appointed, resolu- 
tions were adopted setting forth the aims of those present at the 
meeting, and requesting the people of Virginia to appoint dele- 
gates to a popular convention to be held in Richmond on Feb- 
ruary 10, 1869, for the purpose of considering the report of the 
Committee of Nine and to adopt such measures as would be nec- 
essary to aid them. The views and purpose of the meeting as 



' He was later rector of the University of Virginia for a number 
of years, a trustee of the Peabody Fund and president of the Vir- 
ginia Historical Society. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRCINIA rOIJTICS 67 

set forth in the resokitions were the same in substance as those 
expressed in the "Senex" letter.^ 

On January 8, 1869, the Committee of Nine met in Washing- 
ton. Colonel Baldwin was the chief spokesman of the Commit- 
tee before the Reconstruction and Judiciary committees of Con- 
gress. He had been active in X'irginia pohtics and was moderate, 
pleasing in address and very- forceful in debate. Mr. Stuart se- 
cured the services of his friend, Horace Greely, thereby enhst- 
ing the powerful influence of the Xew York Tribute iti bringinc: 
the true state of affairs in \'irginia before the i)eoplc of the 
North. In this wa}- he rendered niucli aid to the Committee of 
Nine.-' 

There were two other delegations present at the meetings of 
the committees in Congress having charge of Reconstruction. 
One of them represented the conservative faction of the Repub- 
lican party, and the other, the radical faction. The former dele- 
gation, which was composed of Franklin Stearnes, L. H. Chand- 
ler, Edgar Allen and others, were there simply as a committee of 
observation to prevent any action prejudicial to their faction in 
Mrginia. The latter delegation, which was more numerous, was 
led by Governor Wells and was comjiosed of both white and col- 



* They were set forth in the resolutions as follows: "While the 
convictions of the undersigned and, as thej' believe, of the people of 
Virginia, generally remain unchanged, that the freedmen of the 
Southern States in their present uneducated condition are not pre- 
pared for tiie intelligent exercise of the elective franchise and the 
performance of other duties connected with public affairs, and arc 
therefore, at this time, unsafe depositories of political power; ye., 
in view of the verdict of public opinion in favor of their being al- 
lowed to exercise the right of suffrage as expressed in the recent 
elections, the undersigned are prepared to surrender their opposi- 
tion to its incorporation into their fundamental law as an offering 
on the altar of peace, and in the hope that union and harmony may 
be restored on the basis of universal suffrage and universal am- 
nesty." A. H. H. Stuart, Restoration of J'irgitita, p. 28. 

° Among the most influential newspapers of the \orth that gave 
their support to the Committee of Nine were the New York Times, 
the Boston Advcrtizcr and the Chicago Tribune. .\. \\. W. Stuart. 
Restoration of Virginia, p. 47. 



68 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

ored men. They had come to defeat, if possible, the pfans of the 
Committee of Nine. 

Governor Wells testified before the Reconstruction Committee 
that enfranchisement of the whites would not be safe at that 
time ; that it would put an end to the Republican party in Vir- 
ginia and destroy the last hope of the Loyalists in the State; and 
that material development could only come through Republican, 
or Radical, control. He stated furthermore that public opinion 
in \'irginia would not support the Committee of Nine. He was 
answered by members of the other two delegations from Vir- 
ginia. Mr. Stearnes said that since the defeat of the Democratic 
party in the elections of the previous fall, the people of Virginia 
were ready to comply with the Reconstruction Acts ; that a ma- 
jority of the property holders would support the Committee of 
Nine; and that if Virginia were restored under the proposed 
constitution, without the disfranchising, test oath and county 
organization clauses, prosperity would revive and "justice would 
be impartially administered and all classes completely protected." 
He condemned the Underwood Constitution and felt confident 
that it would be defeated by an honest vote of the people, which 
would "leave the State without a civil government, and subject 
to all the whims and caprices of military rule." He was there- 
fore in favor of the program of the Committee of Nine.^" After 
a conference with the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, the 
Committee of Nine was requested to present in writing their 
grievances and the amendments to the Underwood Constitution 
that they desired. ^^ The report was written by Mr. Baldwin. 

The conservative Republicans, finding themselves in accord 
with the Committee of Nine, had become their ally. One of 
those who was invited to Washington by the Committee was 
Gilbert C. Walker, a New Yorker, who had come to reside in 
Norfolk, Virginia. The aid that he rendered the Committee in 
Washington won for him the esteem of the most influential con- 
servatives of both parties and paved the way for his election a 
few months later as governor of the State. 



Stuart, Restoration in Virginia, pp. 37, 38. 
Ibid., pp. 39-44. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 69 

Remembering his promise to the Committee of Nine, (icneral 
Grant, in his first message to Congress on April 7, 1869, advised 
that an election be held in \'irginia .and suggested that such jiarts 
of the constitution as might be thouglit expedient be submitted 
separately to the voters.^- Three days later Congress res])onded 
to the President's message by authorizing him to submit the I'n- 
derwood Constitution to the voters of Virginia for their ap- 
proval or rejection at such a time and in such a manner as he 
should see fit. The State officers provided for under the con- 
stitution were to be elected at the same time. Accordingly, on 
May 14, 1869, the President named July 6 of that year as the 
date for the election. Sections 1 and 7 of Article 111. those, 
relating to the test oath and disfranchisement, were to be voted 
on separately.^ ^ It was a great disappointment to the Conserva- 
tives that the county organization clause was not included among 
those to be submitted to a separate vote. General Grant had 
expressed his unqualified disapproval of this feature of the con- 
stitution to the Committee of Nine, because it would put the 
governments in about half the counties of the State under the 
control of the negroes and their unscrupulous white leaders. (Jn 
this point, however, the President had yielded to the opposition 
of his cabinet, which feared that a change in this respect would 
destroy the public school system which was closely associated in 
the constitution with the county organization. 

The way was now clear for the decisive stniggle between the 
Conservatives and the Radical-Republicans for which both sides 
had already been preparing. 



" Ibid., pp. 53, 54. 

" Code of I'irgiiihi, 1873. p. 26. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Campaign of 1869 and the Restoration of X'^irginia. 

While it appeared that the New ^Movement had divided the 
Conservatives into two factions during the early part of 1869, 
a serious division had occurred in the ranks of their opponents. 
This schism was due in great part to the unfortunate personality 
and ultra-radicalism of the Radical candidate for governor, H. 
H. Wells. His political record was not above reproach and he 
had made some very powerful enemies in his party. His sudden 
elevation to the highest office in the State and to the leadership 
of the Republican party, which went with that position, had 
brought upon him the jealousy and dislike of such men as Hun- 
nicutt and Hawxhurst, who were openly aspiring to that pre- 
eminence themselves. He had, through his dishonesty, incurred 
the enmity of General William Mahone, the leading railroad man 
of the State, a man of doubtful party leanings and of 
great influence as a politician. He had alienated the more 
moderate members of his party by his extreme views and 
by some rather questionable political acts.^ He had been among 
the first of the Republicans to advocate the universal enfran- 
chisement of the negroes and the disfranchisement of the whites. 
As early as June, 1865, \\'ells had accused the wdiite people of 
Virginia of perjury and had advocated very extreme measures 
against them.- In 1868 he urged the Reconstruction Committee 



* Richmond I'.nqnircr, March 11, 1869. 

^ His views are stated in a letter of June 21, 1865, to S. Ferguson 
Beach, president of the Virginia Union Association. This letter was 
widely used as a pohtical document at the time. After stating that 
"loyal" men, both white and colored, were not receiving sufficient 
protection and that a remedy was necessary, he said, "And what is 
that remedy? It is, in my judgment, to establish a military pro- 
visional government, to locale a sufficient military force to preserve 
peace, command respect, and secure order, in other words, to vin- 
dicate the supremacy of the law. Then disfranchise those who are not 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA I'OLITICS 71 

in Congress to disfranchise 25.000 \'irginians who had not been 
disfranchised by the Reconstruction Acts, in order to make se- 
cure the poHtical position of his i)arty. In 1X68 he had also ad- 
vocated the Underwood Constitution witliout reservation. And 
in 1869 he again appeared before the Reconstruction Committee 
and opposed the submission of the objectionable clauses of the 
constitution to a separate vote because it would mean the defeat 
of the Radical party in the State. In spite of all this, in May, 
1869. Wells declared himself in fa\or of the omission of the of- 
fensive clauses in the Underwood Constitution.-' This move 
was taken by him after it was evident that his former ])osition 
was making him unpopular with the best men in the Republican 
party. But he did not advocate in his public speeches the defeat 
of the clauses, and his followers, both white and colored, con- 
tinued to support the constitution as a whole. It was generally 
believed, and with good reason, that he was secretly working 
with his followers as he had done openly in the past."* 

The unpopularity of Governor Wells had made such discord 
in the Republican ranks that the state executive committee of the 
party decided to set aside all the nominations of 1«S68 and to call 
a new convention to put other candidates in the field. The con- 
vention met at Petersburg Marcli *> and 10. It was one of the 
most turbulent of the many disorderly Radical conventions of tiie 
period. 

The insurgents, who composed the more moderate wing of 
the Republican party, desired the nomination of James H. Clem- 
ents for governor. The negroes, who made up the rank and file 
of the opposing wing, supported the candidacy of Wells almost 
unanimously. The contest between the two factions over the 
election of a chairman to the con\ention was very stormy. When 
the Clements faction claimed the victory, the Wells faction 
started a riot. Order was restored only after the police had 

loyal, making loyal acts, and not a l^apcr oath, the test of loyalty. 
This done, create a perpetual balance of power, which will at ail 
times secure you from political danger; or more \ lainly. Irt the negro 
vote." Richmond Enquirer, April 7. 1868. 

^ Richmond Enquirer, May 8, 1869. 

* Richmond Enquirer, June 10, 1869. 







inr I. nuir^L -t^n^g^-^ ^e^ers —im: 



Z^afsr AIJer_ il irosr jci Jir "it^ ■nscrsin: ^e A tils i^fssi i: 
-foe Scsre t: :ie 'Z^iirji. xs Tsel £= ^De rr:^- ''n iir _ __ . — --: 



ir=s u»rxc«d ly Cv'sisr^sa i.«ar ■see- -=^oiscr-irriar -" j-sk >i^nrr.- 






THE KZjGBO IX VTkGl'SlA. J<AJlJjr^ 75 

gomer>- Counn.' ' Tbese re- 
hundred and fim- of tbe nxi'^: , 

bers of the Republican part}- in tbe State tzrlj tbe 

inflneoce of the Gx nmi tt e e of X 

been mainly instrnmental in ^— - 

members of d*e oonservaiiTe ? rtee that bad as- 

sisted Mr. Sttiart's Committee -cf Xuic in '• ■ . r 

the month of Jannaiy. 

Tlie Committee of Nine had - _ ^tive 

ticket be pnt in tbe field against \\"eiis. regardiess of parrv iii>es. 
It was even suggested that in case t^" — " -" ' ' ': 

the Republican party was unable to : 

Wells in tbe coming election, that tbey witbdraw from tbe r:r.- 
vention and nominate candidates of tj' " " ' ' .: 

the ^^'ells ticket by dividing tbe party . - - 

ment had been made witb tbe moderate Re - - It is 

probable that tbe allied factions saw at an ez- 
sity of supporting a conservative, or — r-ferate. - r -.'. 

in order to defeat tbe Wells facr: visely V- 

to themselves until public opinion "sras ready for :ii 
At any rate it "n-as adopted in April 1869 Ik- tbe Cout ? 

and moderate Republicans. 

On tbe tweity-eigbtb of tbat montb a convention of tbe Ccc- 

serv-ative party met in P.-:'- " " ''" : Excbar.r' - -- --e 

political readez\-ou5 of tb.r. ::tude o: 

regard to tbe Xew Movaneiit had chained. After tbe nrsi beat 

of biner protest lad passed away. ' • - ^ - - -- - - -- - - 

iudgnient and self contrdl and wr 

sible, tbe remainder of their political fortunes, ResohitxHis were 
adopted ui^ng tbe voters to defeat tbe c": ' ^ -■ ": 

tbe constinztion when it was submitted. T. - - - 

been nominated l^ tbe Conservatives about twelve nxjoths be- 
fore withdrew in order to give tbe parrv- a " ? 
crisis. A few davs later the state central cc " ; - 



' Appleton's Avvuai Cy: 

* Stuart. The Risii.-'^JiioK . ; ■ . -.•••_ .. 

* Richmond En^ircr, April », 1S«9. 



74 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

people to support the conservative Republican candidates. It 
was felt that although the Conservative party could probably 
win by an honest count, since the choice would lie between W ith- 
ers, a '"red-handed Confederate colonel, '" and Wells, a "loyal" 
Republican, the latter might be ''counted in'" by the election of- 
ficials.^'^ 

Such was the party ahgnment when, on May 4, 1869, Presi- 
dent Grant named July 6. 1869 as the time of the election in 
\'irginia and proclaimed that a separate vote would be taken on 
the disfranchising and test oath clauses. Notwithstanding the 
disappointment of the Conser\-atives because the county organi- 
zation clause was not submitted to a separate vote, the cam- 
paign, which had already been inaugurated, was conducted with 
energy. Walker was greeted with enthusiasm by Conser\'atives 
in all parts of the State. Wells also conducted an efficient cam- 
paign, mostly among the negroes. 

The Conservatives were beginning to feel confident of victory. 
when it became known, just before the election, that General 
Canby, who had succeeded General Stoneman as commanding 
general of the District in March 1869, was determined to ad- 
minister the "iron clad" oath to the officers-elect. Should this 
be done, the candidate having the next highest vote would be 
counted in. Only Radicals would then be elected, and it would 
have meant disaster to the Conservatives and to the State. 
Upon hearing this through Mr. Stuart, the President issued an 
order preventing General Canby from carrjing his designs into 
effect. 11 

The attitude of the consenative whites towards the negroes 
in this campaign is very interesting. The Conservative party 
had organized as a white man's party after the bitter campaign 
of 1867, but the new organization, which included the moderate 
Republicans, sought the aid of the conservative negroes just as 
the Conservative party had done in the election of 1867. Most 
of the political shortcomings of the negroes were charged to 
their white Radical advisers, who were cordially hated during 



" Stuart, Restoration in Virginia, p. -52. 

" Stuart, The Restoration of Virginia, pp. 63-66. 



THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA POLITICS 75 

their stav in \'irginia. The negroes themselves, if moderate, 
were preferred as candidates to these men. The Richmond 
Dispatch, a conservative paper, in commenting on the election, 
said, "Dr. Norton [colored] of Williamsburg, will be no doubt 
elected in the First District. He is. we believe, conservative, and 
opposes Aver, the bitter Radical from the North. We shall con- 
sider Norton's election a victory." ^- In several counties the 
white Conservatives nominated negroes for office. Three of 
these were elected to the General Assembly. ^-^ Some of the 
most substantial negroes aided the Conservatives in this cam- 
paign as they had done in 1867. 

About a week before the election, some two hundred and fifty 
Conservative negroes of Richmond, at the risk of personal vio- 
lence from the colored Radicals, arranged a barbecue for their 
men and invited a number of prominent white Conservatives. 
The speeches on both sides were harmonious and good feeling 
prevailed. The hosts displayed a banner upon which was a pic- 
ture of a white man and a colored man shaking hands. Under 
the picture was written. "United we stand : divided we fall." 
By an unhappy coincidence a nearby bridge fell soon after the 
appearance of this banner, carrying with it a crowd of people. 
Many were injured and several killed.'-* .\mong those who 
were killed was Colonel James R. Branch, a prominent white 
Conservative, of Richmond. 

The Radicals encouraged the superstitious negroes in believ- 
ing that this accident was an evil omen against the affiliating of 
members of their race with the Conservative party. The Radi- 
cal newspapers attributed much importance to the providential 
warning, as they interpreted it to the negroes. One of them, 
the Richmond Evcuiuii Jounial, of July 3, 1869, said of the ac- 
cident. "That colored vote of ours is a pozi'cr. It is directed by 
a religious sentiment. The hand of God is in it to curse those 
who apostatize, and to bless and guide those who go faithfully 
to the polls and vote for the Republican ticket. . . . There has 



** (Aver was elected, however). Dispatch. July 7. 1S69. 

" The Xation. July 15. 1S69. 

" Richmond Distotch, July 2. 3. 1S69. 



76 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

been no 'colored Conservative barbecue" and there will be none. 
An awful fiat has forbidden, and that finger will not again be 
tempted to be uplifted against colored apostasy." ^'^ 

During this campaign most of the negroes were completely un- 
der the influence of the Union League.i*^ gome of them were 
persuaded by the anti-Wells Republicans to follow them into the 
Conservative ranks. Others had been persuaded to abandon the 
League by the farmers, who in some cases refused to employ a 
member. 

As the day of the election drew near the negroes showed a 
growing tendency to nominate men of their own color as candi- 
dates for election to the General Assembly and to Congress. On 
May 24, the first unmixed negro state convention ever held in 
Virginia met in Petersburg in answer to a call issued by the 
colored people of that city. The object of the convention, as 
expressed by Dr. Bayne, was to bring it about that the State 
would have no peace while all of its offices were filled with 
white men. The convention endorsed the whole Underwood 
Constitution and the \\'ells ticket. i" 

In a number of counties in the State the negroes put candi- 
dates of their own race in the field against those of both the 
Walker and the Wells tickets. In Norfolk city they had two 
colored candidates for the State Senate and three for the House 
of Delegates. In six Congressional districts they had candidates 
for the Mouse of Representatives. 

The vote in the election of 1869 was perhaps the largest that 
had ever been cast in the history of the State. The returns are 
very interesting since they show the vote by race as well as by 
party. They are as follows i^'^ 



" Quoted in the Richmond Dispatch of July 5, 1869. According to 
the Dispatch (July 9) the accident was made to help in intimidating 
those of the negroes who had deserted the Union League. Barbe- 
cues were given the negroes in several counties to win them from 
the League. 

'" The Richmond Dispatch, July 2, 1869. 

" The Richmond Enquirer, May 28, 29, 1869. 

" Code of Virginia, 1873, p. 28. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 11 



Total Number of Reg- Number of Votes For the Con- Against 

istered Voters. Cast. .stitution. tlic Consti- 

White Colored White Colored tution. 

149,781 120,103 125,] 14 y7,20.') 210..JS.-> y.KSfi 



For 4th 




For 7th 










clause Sec. 




Section, 










1, Art. Ill 


Against 


Article 


Against 


.\ot 


V( 


atuig 


of Constitu- 


It. 


III 


It. 


White 




Colored 


tion. 














84.410 


i24,:]r)0 


83,458 


12 4.715 


24.637 




22.898 



For Governor For Lieutenant-Gov. For Attorney-General 

Walker Wells Lewis Harris Taylor Bowden 

119,535 101,204 120,068 99.600 119.446 101,129 

The color line in this election was drawn more shaq^ly than 
in the i)revious election. That part of the constitution not in- 
cltiding the two parts that were voted on separately was accepted 
by both sides almost unanimously. Walker was elected govern- 
or by a majority of 18,331 out of 220.739 votes. The Conserva- 
tives, Lewis and Taylor, were also elected lieutenant-governor 
and attorney-general, respectively. Of the six candidates for 
the three highest state offices, Taylor received the greatest num- 
ber of votes and Harris, his colored opponent, the smallest. Evi- 
dently some of the Radicals did not support their colored candi- 
date. The most interesting and significant feature of the elec- 
tion was the vote on the clauses that were submitted separately. 
The negroes voted almost unanimously for these clauses, which 
if adopted would have disfranchised thousands of white men 
and disqualified from holding office practically all the white men 
of the State. The efforts to break the hold of the Union league 
on the negroes had been successful only to a very small degree, 
and the negroes voted as they had been instructed by their Rad- 
ical leaders. 

Of the 43 senators elected to the General Assembly. 30 were 
Conservatives and 13, Radicals. Of the 138 d degates elected. 96 
were Conservatives and 42. Radicals. There were 6 negro Rad- 
icals among the senators elected, and 18 negro Radicals and 3 



78 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

negro Conservatives among the delegates. The Conservative 
candidates won 5 out of the 9 Congressional districts. 

To the country at large this seemed like a victory of the mod- 
erate faction of the Republican party, but it was really a victory 
of the old Conservative party. It meant that the State had 
passed directly from under a fairly efiicient military government 
to one under Conservative control, and that Virginia was thereby 
spared several painful years of carpetbag-negro rule, like that 
which had existed in most of the other Southern States. There 
remained, however, from Reconstruction, a new and cumber- 
some government, the provision for an expensive public school 
system, a large public debt, and other new and fearful prob- 
lems — social, political and racial. These problems had to l)e 
faced and solved by a poverty-stricken state, carrying a heavy 
debt and a burden of about one hundred and fifty thousand 
newly enfranchised freedmen. who were densely ignorant and 
well organized under unscrupulous leaders politically hostile to 
the white population. 

The election had been a quiet one in spite of the bitterness of 
the campaign that preceded it.^^ The general apprehension that 
had been felt over this feature of the election is shown in the 
frequent comment, "No disturbance," "All quiet," and other 
similar laconic phrases in the telegraphic reports to the news- 
papers of the elections in the black counties of the State. In a 
few of the reports, mention was made of the fact that some 
negroes had voted with the whites for Walker.-" 

There was great rejoicing among the Conservatives over the 
results of the election. The Norfolk correspondent of a Rich- 
mond paper said, "W bile I write, bonfires are burning, music 
playing, and other demonstrations of a rejoicing people" are in 
progress. There were similar celebrations throughout the 
State. The exodus of the carpetbaggers was anticipated with 
keen pleasure. "Thank Cod," writes the editor of the Richmond 



'° The Dispatch, July 8, 1869, considered this "a marvel of these 
days." 

=" Richmond Dispatch, July 7, 1869. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 79 

Dispatch, "they must soon depart or take to some honest liveli- 
hood." 

In September 1869, the provisional Governor, Wells, hndinj^ 
the political climate of Virginia no longer congenial, resigned, 
and the governor-elect, Walker, succeeded him in office. A few 
days later, October 5, 1869, the first General Assembly that had 
met in three years, and the first in ten years to receive the un- 
qualified recognition of the Federal government convened in 
Richmond. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were 
submitted to the Assembly by Governor Walker on the third 
day of its session. The former amendment was ratified in the 
Senate by a vote of 36 to 4, and in the House of Delegates by 
a vote of 126 to 6. The latter amendment was ratified in the 
Senate by a vote of 40 to 2, and in the 1 louse by a unanimous 
vote. The virtual unanimity with which the amendments were 
ratified is interesting in view of the fact that before the .Assem- 
bly had been able to effect a permanent organization and pro- 
ceed with its work, the Radical members had attempted to have 
the test oath required of all the members, and followed this vain 
attempt by a protest against the loyalty and legality of the As- 
sembly. 

The Radical party expressed its disapproval of the July elec- 
tions in resolutions adopted by its State convention which met 
in Richmond on November 24, 1869. It was therein declared 
that "the election held in this State on the 6th of July, last, re- 
sulted in a Confederate triumph, which we unhesitatingly assert 
was achieved by artifice, intimidation and fraud." ^^ "We l>e- 
lieve," continued the resolutions, "that the secret of our defeat 
can be found in the unfortunate submission to a separate vite 
of the test-oath and disfranchising clauses of the State consti- 
tution, in direct opposition to the deliberate opinion of the rank 
and file of the Republican party in \'irginia." .\n appeal was 



"' The election was conducted under tlie supervision of Federal 
officials, and two local men of each race were chosen to challenge 
the voters at the respective voting places. The Commanding Gen- 
eral at the time was a Radical sympathizer. The accusation of the 
Radicals, like many similar statements to gain the support of the 
North, was without foundation. 



80 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

made to Congress to "guarantee to \'irginia a republican form 
of government" by either requiring the test-oath of those elected 
and upon their refusal to take it to count in the candidate having 
the next highest vote, or by requiring a new election in order to 
have a vote taken on the constitution as a whole. "In event of 
a new election," continued the appeal, "we would ask for a mili- 
tary force sufficient to protect us in our political and civil rights. 
. . . This is perhaps our last contest. On your decision, loyalty 
in Virginia lives or dies. If you decide against us, no one will 
dare avow his Republicanism. The pernicious example set here 
will extend to other Southern states ; the colored people will 
again be at the mercy of their former masters ; the national debt 
will be repudiated ; and the rebel Democratic yoke may be placed 
on the necks of the American people in 1872." 22 These resolu- 
tions are sufficient to show the character and the methods of 
the "rank and file of the Republican party in Virginia," and to 
explain, in part at least, the solidarity of the opposition to that 
party in the Commonwealth since 1867. 

Fortunately for the State, Congress did not heed the cry of 
the Radicals, and Virginia took her place in the Union by an act 
of Congress of January 26, 1870. 



Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1869, p. 714. 



CHAPTER \'l I. 
The Elimination of thk Cakpkti'.acc.krs — 1S6"' to 1K7'). 

The first phase of the history of the negro in N'irj^inia poHtics 
ended with the Conservative victory of 1869, wliich brouf,'ht the 
State back into the Union in 1870 under the control of the na- 
tive white Conservatives. The victory had been fairly won 
under the careful supervision of the Federal authorities. The 
Radical domination of the State government by means of the 
colored vote was ended. liut the Radicals retained their hold 
on local governments in the black counties and were a constant 
menace to the political welfare of the State. Grave economic 
troubles had arisen out of war and reconstruction. lUit before 
the people of the State could turn their attention to these mat- 
ters, the political field had to be cleared of carpetbaggers and 
their radical followers, and the negroes relegated to the back- 
ground in the affairs of government. 

The economic troubles were intimately bound up in State pol- 
itics with the State debt of over forty-fi\e million dollars that 
had been contracted before the War of Secession for works of 
internal improvement.^ The greater i)art of the debt had l>een 
made during the hopeful decade just preceding the war; and 
during the decade of war and reconstruction that followed, it 
was enormously increased by the unpaid interest that accumu- 
lated. Mad there been no war. the debt, representing for the 
most part good investments, would not have been a burden to 
the people. In 1870, however, it weighed like a mill-stone upon 
the State, and was to dominate X'irginia politics for the next 
half a generation. In 1866 the payment in full of the debt and 
accumulated interest was pledged by the last legislature repre- 
senting the old regime. By the code of honor of this regime. 



' R. L. Morton. "The Virginia State Debt and internal Improve- 
ments, 1820-38," The Journal of Political Economy, April. 1017. W. 
H. Ambler, The History of Sectionalism in I'irginia. 

—6 81 



82 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

those who governed the State guarded its honor as jealously as 
they guarded honor in their personal affairs. Fraud had been 
practically unknown in the public affairs of the Commonwealth. 
The stand taken by the legislature in 1866 was heroic in view of 
the extreme poverty of the State at that time. 

At the beginning of his administration Governor Walker took 
a very hopeful view of the situation. In his message of March 
8, 1870, he advocated the funding of the entire debt on a basis 
most favorable to the creditors, and the passage of other laws 
to strengthen public and private credit. His advice was heartily 
seconded by the press of the State and was approved by conser- 
vatives everywhere. 

The legislature showed by its acts a desire to conform to the 
new order of things and to follow the lead of the Governor in 
an effort to strengthen the financial condition of the Common- 
wealth. A good system of public schools was inaugurated un- 
der the very efficient management of the first superintendent 
of public instruction, Dr. W. H. Ruffner; and provision was 
made for putting into operation the new system of local gov- 
ernment required by the Underwood Constitution. But by tak- 
ing advantage of the provision in the constitution that reap- 
portionment should be made on the basis of representation in the 
General Assembly, the legislature broke up the gerrymander of 
the Underwood Constitution. ^ 

Closely associated with the debt question was the question of 
railroad ownership and control. Governor Walker advocated 
the abandonment of the State's interest in the railroads. As a 
result of its policy of borrowing, the State owned a controlling 
interest in its main lines of communication. In response to the 
advice of the Governor, the legislature, after a bitter struggle, 
passed an act ^ providing for the sale of the State's railroad 
stock at a sacrifice. The negro vote was the deciding factor in 
the passage of this bill.-* The act was not favorable to the in- 



* J. A. C. Chandler, Representation in Virginia (Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity Studies, vol. xiv), pp. 79-80. 

' Act of March 28, 1871. 

* C. C. Pearson, The Rcadjuster Movement in Virginia, p. 29. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRCINIA I'OIJTICS 83 

terests of the State, and the people felt that their interest ^jad 
been bartered away. This was one of the most important 
pieces of legislation of that session. 

The most important act of the session was the Inindinjr .Act. 
which was passed two days later. By this act it was j)rovided 
that the old bonds conld be exchanged for new ones, bearing 
six per cent interest — the old rate — for two-thirds f)f the 
amount of the old bonds, respectively, and the overdue inter- 
est on them. With these were to be given interest-bearing 
certificates for the other tliird u\Hm which was stated that pay- 
ment of this would be made in accordance with such settlement 
as would thereafter be made between Virginia and West Vir- 
ginia. Interest promises were to be in the form of coupons re- 
ceivable in payment of taxes or other dues to the State.'' 

The bill was rushed through the House at the close of the 
session with little opportunity for debate. It received the sup- 
port of half the Conservatives and of all the Republican mem- 
bers but one.*' The negroes, who were Republicans, voted 
against the bill at first, but reversed their vote three hours 
later." It was believed that they had been bought. 

After the passage of this act, the rcvcmies of the State were 
not sufficient to pay the six per cent interest on the debt and at 
the same time pay the other appropriations provided by her 
laws.^ The current expenses of the State, which had averaged 
a little over half a million dollars, now required an anmial ap- 
propriation of over a million dollars. To offset this, only lit- 
tle could be realized from the sale of the State's railroad assets 
under the act of March 28. 1871.'* Furthermore, taxes were 



° Act of March 30. 1871. 

' Journal of the House of Delegates, March, 1871. Jouru^il of the 
Senate, March, ISTl. 

' House Journal, 1S71-1872, pp. .31, 1:57, 297 ff; tlie Richmond fr/ii>. 
Enquirer, Dispatch, February 14-20. 1872 — cited in C. C. Pearson. The 
Readjuster Movement in rirginia, p. .32. See also F. G. Ruffin, The 
Cost and Outcome of Xegro Education in Virginia, (Pamphlet) Rich- 
mond, 1889; Virginia House Journal and Docunicnli, 1874-1875, p. -30. 

" Journal and Documents of the House of Delegates, 1874-187.'); W. 
L. Royall, The J'irginia State Debt Controversy, p. 21. 

' Senate Jourual and Documents. 1874-1875, Doc. 1. 



84 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

already high and the people were in very straightened circum- 
stances. The negroes, who constituted over a third of the pop- 
ulation, had practically no property at all to be taxed. 

There had been little interest taken in the campaign of 1870. 
Three Republican and five Conservative representatives were 
elected to Congress. The color line had appeared as usual be- 
tween the two parties. At the end of the legislative session of 
1870-1871 party issues were still ill defined. The debt and rail- 
road controversies of that session had not been strictly along 
party lines. Party platforms had been conciliatory and not 
clear cut. There were factions in both parties over the recent 
legislation and on account of strife between the carpetbaggers, 
supported by the negroes, and their allies, the scalawags, over 
the giving of Federal patronage. i" But the Conservatives re- 
organized the party in their convention of August 30, 1871. 
The old ante-bellum leaders, who had been barred from poli- 
tics, now made their presence felt. In the words of Professor 
Pearson, this marked "the beginning of a Confederate reaction 
against the compromising idea that had prevailed for two 
years." It should be noted, however, that six negro members 
from Richmond were given a hearty welcome at this conven- 
tion and Governor Walker was invited to be present. About a 
month later, the Republican convention formulated a platform 
in which the Conservative party was severely arraigned. The 
Funding Act, which had received the votes of their own dele- 
gates when passed, received special condemnation. It was also 
stated in the platform that the Conservatives had not fulfilled 
the requirements of the new constitution in regard to the pub- 
lic schools and in regard to the right of negroes to sit on juries. 

In the November election which followed, the Conservatives 
increased their majority in the House of Delegates by fifteen 
members and in the Senate by six.^^ The number of negroes in 

'" C. C. Pearson, The Rcadjttstcr Moz'cincnt in rirginia, p. 38. 

" In the House of Delegates there were 97 Conservatives and 35 
Republicans, 14 of the latter colored; in the Senate there were 33 
Conservatives and 10 Republicans, 3 of whom were colored. The 
Richmond Distatdi, November 16, 18, 1871; Applcton's Annual Cyclo- 
paedia, 1871. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 85 

the House was reduced from twenty to fourteen, and in the 
Senate, from six to three. 

In the meanwhile, the financial situation of the State was be- 
coming very serious. The State government found it impos- 
sible to meet the obligations imposed by the Funding Act of 
March 1871 and defaulted in the payment of the interest on 
the new bonds. In March 1872, an act was passed over the 
Governor's veto forbidding tax collectors from receiving the 
coupons, already issued, in payment of taxes. ^- But the Vir- 
ginia Court of Appeals, in December 1872, declared this act an 
impairment of the oliligation of contract and therefore uncon- 
stitutional.'-^ As a result, coupons were redeemed as before. 
A deficit occurred in the State's revenue. On account of this 
the public schools suffered most heavily.'' Out of this state of 
affairs grew the Readjuster iMovement. The new devclojiment 
in the debt question was looked upon with alarm by the Con- 
servative leaders, especially those of the old school, who be- 
lieved with William L. Royall, that "all of this proceeded di- 
rectly from the new order of things which the introduction of 
the negro as a voter produced." '•'' 

The legislature of 1872-1873 did not improve the situation 
by acts to reduce the expenses of the government or to improve 
the credit of the State, though elected with that end in view. 
The Conservative party failed to carry the State for Horace 
Greely, the Liberal-Republican candidate, in the national elec- 
tion of 1872. In the Congressional elections of that year. Rad- 
ical (Republican) candidates were elected from the four east- 
ern and southern districts — the black districts — of the SMte. 
The remaining five were won by the Conservatives. '*"' The Re- 

" Act of March 7, 1872. 

" .A-ntoni f. Wright, 32 Graftan, sr^.T. 

" For account of arrears in the appropriations for the public 
schools, see the Governor's Message. December 0, 1870, House Jour- 
nal dnd Documents, 1876-1877. 

" W. L. Royall, The Jlrghiia State Debt Controversy, p. 23. Mr. 
Roj-^all was chief counsel for the bondholders during the contro- 
versy. 

" The first amendment to the Underwood Constitution was 



86 PHElvPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

publican success in this election greatly encouraged them and 
aroused the Conservatives to increased efforts in the campaign 
for the election of the higher State officers and members of the 
General Assembly. 

The campaign of 1873 was one of unusual interest through- 
out the Commonwealth. The Radical, or Republican conven- 
tion assembled in Lynchburg on July 30. About half of its 
members were colored. i' Robert W. Hughes, a former se- 
cessionist and a man of ability, who came from southwestern 
Virginia, was nominated for governor; C. P. Rumsdell, a car- 
petbagger from an eastern county, for lieutenant-governor; and 
David Fultz, an old Union man, from Augusta County, for at- 
torney-general. Thus every faction of the party and every sec- 
tion of the State were represented. The platform adopted was 
generous, progressive and of wide appeal. 

The Conservative convention, held in Richmond a few days 
later, August 6, was one of the largest and most enthusiastic 
meetings ever held by the party. Their nominations and plat- 
form, like those of the Republicans, were made with a view to 
harmonize contending factions and sections. General James L. 
Kemper from the Valley, an officer in the Mexican war and in 
the War of Secession, was nominated for governor; Colonel R. 
E. Withers of the Southwest, for lieutenant-governor; and 
Raleigh T. Daniel, a prominent lawyer and party leader, of 
Richmond, for attorney-general. Kemper owed his nomina- 
tion largely to the influence of William Mahone, whom he had 
supported in the contest over the railroads. Withers, on the 
other hand, was an enemy of Mahone. ^^ 

adopted by the people at this election. The usury clause was 
stricken from the constitution, giving the legislature a free hand in 
setting the rate of interest. The constitution underwent many 
changes in this way. For these changes, see later codes of Virginia, 
and, for a convenient summary of them, see David L. Pulliam, The 
Constitutional Conventions of J^irginia (Richmond, 1901) pp. 165-179.^ 

A change in legislative representation had been made, but this 
had been required by the constitution. 

" Current newspapers. Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873. 

^' R. E. Withers, Autobiography. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 87 

The return of the old leaders to political life was made pos- 
sible by the wholesale removal of disabilities by Congress in 
1872. The same qualities that had brought these men to the 
front in times of war brought them to the front in political af- 
fairs, and their rank in the army made them heroes in the pop- 
ular mind. The platform adopted by the convention had much 
in common with the platform adopted by the Radicals the pre- 
vious week, but it was not quite as liberal in content and tone. 
A comparison was drawn between the condition of Virginia 
under Conservative control and that of other Southern states 
under Radical rule ; justice to all, regardless of race or nativity, 
was made the aim of the party ; the new system of public 
schools was pointed to with pride, and liberal support of pub- 
lic school education was advocated.!^ Conservatives were ad- 
vised to vote against all independent candidates. 

In spite of the fortunate nominations and the progressive 
platforms of the two parties, the true issue of the campaign, 
negro control in politics, could not be concealed. The cam- 
paign was a struggle of the carpetbaggers to regain their for- 
mer prominence through the aid of the negroes. The bitter- 
ness of their fight was increased by the realization that this 
would be, perhaps, their last one if they were defeated at that 
time. So sharply drawn was the line between the whites and 
the blacks that, as The Nation expressed it, it was "barely an 
exaggeration to say that it was a struggle of races." -^ The 
Conservatives, who had refrained from recognizing the color 
line in former campaigns, now frankly did so, and challenged 
the whites to be true to their race by supporting their party. 
They had tried in vain to effect some kind of compromise to 

^° It may be noted in this connection that there were in Virginia 
390,913 negroes over ten years of age who could not read, and 445,893 
who could not write. Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion of Virginia, 1871, p. 202. (According to the census of 1870 the 
total colored population was 512,841.) 

=» The Nation, November 6, 1873. The quest mi was asked in an 
editorial in the Richmond Dispatch, March 4, 1873: "Shall the whites 
rule and take care of the negroes, or shall the negroes rule and take 
care of the whites?" There was no longer a compromise here. 



88 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

break the solid ranks of the negroes under their Radical lead- 
ers in order to avoid the race issue in politics. There was now 
but one course to pursue, that of drawing the color line just as 
their opponents had done. The whites in the central, eastern 
and southern counties of the State had borne patiently the re- 
sults of Reconstruction. They had in their local offices and as 
their representatives in the legislature their former servants — 
carriage drivers, butlers, shoemakers and field hands — and self- 
seeking white adventurers from without the State and native 
demagogues. Some of the negro officers were honest and cap- 
able men who exerted a good influence over their people ; but 
even these were lacking in training and experience to represent 
educated white constituencies which had always possessed a 
genius for politics and a high standard for its officers. Accord- 
ing to Dr. W. H. Ruffner, the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, there was in these counties "one agonizing desire ; 
it is for honest, enlightened, local government, and for deliver- 
ance, not only from the actual incubus, but from the constant 
dread of semi-barbarous rule." -^ The weakening of the Re- 
publican party by the many political scandals during President 
Grant's administration, and by the panic of 1873, diverted the 
mind of the North from Southern affairs and gave the Con- 
servatives in Virginia more freedom from outside influence in 
politics. It was also at this time that there occurred the famous 
decisions of the Federal Supreme Court in the Slaughter House 
Cases, which marked a reaction in that court against the undue 
interference of the Federal government in the political affairs 
of the individual states. 

During the campaign of 1873 the Radicals adjured the ne- 
groes to support their party, and reminded them that the 
whites, or Conservatives, had once held them in slavery and 
would do so again if they could control the government. In 
answer, the Conservatives urged the whites to be loyal to their 
race and to remember the crimes committed under negro local 
rule in the State. For example, reference was made to the rav- 
ishing of an old lady by two of Kellogg's colored policemen, of 

" State School Report, 1873, p. 204. 



THE NEGRO IN VIKCINIA I'OI.ITICS 89 

which deed the Lynchburg News said. "It seems monstrous to 
suppose that any white men. having a mother, sister, wife, or 
daughter can march up to the polls and vote to place in j)ower 
a party which connives at such outrages." — The horrible ex- 
ample of Radical-negro rule that could then be seen in other 
Southern states afforded the white Conservatives an ample and 
just reason for the existence of their party." 

The election resulted in the defeat of the Republicans. Kem- 
per won with a majority of 27.239 votes out of the 214.2.^7 
cast. Withers and Daniel were also elected. In the General 
Assembly the Conservatives had as the result of the election i3 
men in the Senate and 99 in the House of Delegates. The Re- 
publicans had 9 men in the Senate and 33 in the House. A 
third of the Republicans in the Senate and over a half of the 
Republicans in the House were colored. -'"^ 

One of the hardest things for outsiders to realize was the 
friendly relations that still existed between the members of the 
two races in Virginia outside of politics. In spite of bitterness 
engendered by political strife and outside interference, when 
blacks met whites in everyday life, the old attachment that had 
existed between master and servant before the war continued 
to exist. The negroes continued to look to the whites for pro- 
tection, advice and emi)loyment ; and the whites depended upon 
the negroes for their labor. In speaking of this in 1873. Dr. 
Rufifner said. "In spite of the political contests on the race line, 
the personal relations between the white and colored people are 
not only friendly, but are more free and genial than commonly 
exist between the corresponding classes of whites." -^ In his 
message to the General Assembly of January 1. 1874, Governor 



-^ The Xation, November 6. 1873. 

^ Warrock-Richardson Almanac, 1874; Applctnu's .hiiiual Cyclof'ac- 
dia. 187."]; The Richmond Dispatch, Xovember 17. 187.3. 

During the legislative session of 1874, Colonel Robert E. Withers 
was chosen United States Senator. His closest opponent in the 
contest for the position was James P. Evans, a n-gro, who received 
15 votes, all but one of which were colored. Virginia now had two 
Conservative United States senators. Journal of the House of Dele- 
gates, 1874, pp. 72-73. 

'* The I'iriiinia School Report, 1873. 



90- PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

Kemper pointed to the fact that there was not a single discrim- 
ination in regard to race in the laws of the State, and that the 
Federal government had not had a single occasion to interfere 
in the domestic affairs of the State upon the pretext of injus- 
tice or inequality in the Virginia code of laws, or in their ap- 
plication and enforcement between the races. In reference to 
the recent defeat of the carpetbaggers, he said, "Recent events 
prove how futile, and how disastrous to its authors, must be 
any attempt to array the colored race as a political combina- 
tion upon any principle of antagonism between the races. All 
such attempted combinations of the past are dissolved and dis- 
persed and we are afforded a golden opportunity for settling 
forever the internal jealousies which have hindered our mate- 
rial progress, and for completing thf pacification of all elements 
of the body politic." The Governor advocated the division of 
the races socially and their mutual aid along all lines of prog- 
ress. He desired the moral and educational betterment of the 
colored people. In political affairs he was confident that the 
white people would lead on account of their superior numbers, 
wealth, political training and intelligence. ^^ 

The growing strength of the Conservative party was further 
shown in the returns of the Congressional elections in the fall 
of that year, 1874. With the exception of one representative, 
William H. H. Stowell. administration candidate from the 
Fourth District, all the representatives elected were Conserva- 
tives.2*' 



^'' Journal and Documents of the House of Delegates, 1874, pp. 10-11. 

*" Excitement ran high during political campaigns. John Goode 
defeated James H. Piatt of Vermont in a warmly contested election 
for a seat in Congress from the district in which Norfolk city is lo- 
cated. Piatt had made himself exceedingly obnoxious to the white 
people of the district and Goode gives the following account of the 
reception that he received upon his victory over Piatt: 

"The city was brilliantly illuminated and nearly the entire popu- 
lation turned out to meet me at the station, and with a torchlight 
procession escorted me to my house." 

In this district the negroes nominated as candidates one of their 
number, Robert Norton, in a mass meeting at Yorktown. John 
Goode. Recollections of a Lifetime, pp. 107 fif. 



THE NEGRO IN VIK(.IMA POLITICS 91 

After the defeat of the Radicals at tlie polls the Conserva- 
tives, under the guidance of their old leaders, proceeded with 
the undoing of Reconstruction in the State. Resolutions had 
already heen adopted by the previous Assembly to amend the 
article in the Underwood Constitution relating to county or- 
ganization.-'' These resolutions were now finally adopted. The 
amendments, therein, provided for the abolition of a third of 
the local officers of the State and for changing the name "town- 
ship" (which was a constant reminder of Reconstruction ad- 
venturers that had introduced the townshij) system in the Com- 
monwealth) to "magisterial district." the old name. This 
amendment was submitted to the people in the fall of 1874 and 
was ratified by a good majority.-^ 

During the session of 1874-1875 the legislature, acting upon 
the Governor's advice, again laid violent hands upon the Un- 
derwood Constitution, and the reaction against Reconstruction 



^ Acts of Assembly, 1872-1873, p. 274; Journal and Documcitts of the 
House of Delegates, 1874. pp. 20-24. 

* Governor Kemper was not satisfied with the amendment because 
it was not drastic enough, and strongly advocated further amend- 
ments. "That instrument." he said, referring to the Underwood Con- 
stitution, "imposes upon the impoverished and sparce population of 
Virginia a frame-work of State and local government so complicated 
and costly that it must of necessity be oppressive in any but a densely 
settled state. After Virginia had been stripped of a third of her 
territory and more tlian half of her material values — when the legis- 
lature should have been reduced in* numbers one-half, and the gov- 
ernment conformed to the diminished size and resources of the State 
— the legislative department was made relatively large, its sessions 
twice as frequent, and the whole machinery of the government more 
expensive than when the State was powerful, rich and prosperous. 
The Constitution is full of details which belong only to the domain 
of ordinary legislation. It puts unusual and meddlesome restric- 
tions upon the legislative power, which cripple the government in 
its efforts to equalize the burdens of taxation, and to restore the 
State credit. It contains provisions and allusions touching our past 
history which are irritating and offensive to a irajority of the peo- 
ple." Furthermore, he said, it had abolished tlie "ancient, honest 
and manly mode of voting by the living voice." and had substituted 
the secret ballot, a source of fraud, dissimulation and falsehood. 
Journal and Documents of the House of Delegates. 1874, pp. 4S2-4S4. 



92 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

went on apace. Two sets of amendments were adopted for sub- 
mission to popular vote. The first of these dealt with that part 
of the constitution relating to the elective franchise and quali- 
fications for office ; the second had to do with the article relat- 
ing to the legislative department. To the former disqualifica- 
tions from voting — insanity, bribery at elections, embezzlement 
of public funds, duelling (or aiding in a duel), treason and fel- 
ony — was added petit larceny. This was the first time that dis- 
crimination had been made against the negroes through legis- 
lation striking at their peculiar characteristics. The following 
oath, that had been required of "every person ofTering or ap- 
plying to register," was stricken from the constitution : 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am not 

disqualified from exercising the right of suffrage by the Constitution 
framed by the Convention which assembled in the city of Richmond, 
on the third of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and 
that T will support and defend the ?ame to the best of my ability. "29 

Thus an unhappy reminder of the past was removed and the 
ground was cleared of this obstacle to tender consciences in the 
future. 

By the second group of amendments, adopted at this time, the 
number of members of the House of Delegates was reduced 
from 132 to not over 100; the General Assembly would meet 
biennially instead of annually ; power was given the General 
Assembly to provide for the government of cities and towns, 
and to establish such courts therein as might be necessary for 
the administration of justice ; the General Assembly was given 
the power to remove disabilities incurred by aiding or partici- 
pating in duelling; and finally, the former custom of reciuiring 
the payment of a poll tax as a requisite for voting was re- 
vived. ^^ 



" .-lets of Assonhly, 1874-187.5, p. ;^99. ch. 313. Submitted to the 
people by act of the General Assembly, Acts 187.5-1876. p. 82, ch. 87; 
p. 87, ch. 88. These amendments were ratified by a large majority. 
Hven at this date Federal troops were used at tlie polls in Peters- 
burg. 

'° This tax requirement did not prove satisfactory as there was 
no provision made for a set time for the payment of this tax before 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA TOLITICS 93 

Although the poll tax rec|uirement as a requisite for voting 
was aimed chiefly at the negro.''^ who it was believed would not 
pay his poll tax. the fiscal need for the law was largely respon- 
sible for its existence. 'IMic chant^c in the constitution was 
strongly urged by (lovernor Walker at the bcgiiming of his ad- 
ministration on this account. In 1873, Dr. RulTner advocated 
the payment of a two dollar poll tax as a rc(|uisite for vcning 
in order to provide money for the jiublic schools. lie reminded 
the people of the fact that it was the custom in Virginia before 
1867 to re(iuirc tax receipts of those desiring to vote and cited 
this as "evidence, that this movement (for the poll tax recpiire- 
ment) is not aimed at the rights and privileges of any particu- 
lar color or condition." •'- 



the elections. Tt was consequently often paid at the last moment 
for the voter. Fraud resulted, and much money was needed by each 
party for the purchasing of votes. Furthermore, some of the poorer 
whites were disfranchised thereby. When the Readjuster party came 
into power in 1880 the legislature proposed an amendment to abol- 
ish that part of the constitution. The amendment, according to law, 
had to be passed by a second session of the legislature. It was ap- 
proved a second time and was ratified by the people in 1S82. There 
was no change in the suflfrage after this until 1902. J. A. C. Chan- 
dler, The History of Suffrage in I'iri^iuia. Johns Hopkins University 
Studies, 19th Series. 

For the acts relating to these amendments, see .lets of Assewhiy. 
1874-1875, p. 399, ch. 313. Submitted to the people by the act of As- 
sembly 1875-1876, p. 82, ch. 87; p. 87, ch. 88. 

The amendment relating to duelling was made in behalf of some 
of the old leaders who had participated in duelling. Duelling ex- 
isted in Virginia until about 1880 in spite of the better judgment and 
the disapproval not only of the people in general but also of those 
who participated in them. For an interesting account of the last 
and most famous of the post-bellum duels fought in Virginia and of 
the attitude of one who figured prominently in these aflFairs and m 
Virginia politics of the period, see \V. L. Royall. Some Remiinseeuces. 
pp. 64-100. 

" The Richmond Dis(^oteli, I-ebruary 28, 1880. 

'- He said furthermore that the restrictions on the franchise that 
existed in some parts of New England at that time were much more 
severe. In Connecticut, for example, no man could vote who could 



94 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

The change in the constitution which placed the form of 
government for the respective cities in the hands of the legisla- 
ture was one of the most important adopted at this time. This, 
like several other contemporaneous changes, was designed to 
deliver the local governments of the black belt out of the hands 
of the negroes and their leaders. 

It was at this time that disillusionment first came to the negroes 
in regard to their white allies, the Radical-Republicans from 
abroad. Upon the failure to receive the Federal support which 
they had so earnestly prayed for, the more aspiring and capable 
carpetbaggers had sought other occupations or more propitious 
fields for their political activity ; some had joined the Conserv- 
ative ranks. But the less capable of these unwelcome invaders 
still lingered in the black counties, courting favor with the col- 
ored people in order to win an ofifice here and there. These 
men, had, by their familiarity with the colored people and by 
their lack of real sympathy and regard for them, brought upon 
themselves the contempt of the negroes, who after all still 
prided themselves on their friendship with the "quality." Fi- 
nancial troubles had diverted the attention of the people of the 
North from their former wards at the South. The negroes 
now began to realize that they were not only forsaken by their 
former political allies but also that the whites were no longer 
in the mood to compromise in political affairs. 

The colored voters gave vent to their dissatisfaction in a 
state convention held at Richmond on August 20, 1875. The 
meeting was called for the purpose of preserving the rights of 
the colored people and of securing redress for the wrongs 
which they claimed to have received at the hands of the local 
authorities and at the hands of the Republican leaders in Rich- 
mond and Washington. There were many delegates present 
from all parts of the State. T.ike former Radical gatherings of 
this kind, it was characterized by much speaking, excitement 
and confusion. Resolutions were adopted as follows : 

not read; and in Massachusetts the ability to read and write was re- 
quired of voters. Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public In- 
struction of Virginia, 1873. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 05 

"Believing in a republican form of government such as emanated 
from the reversionary right of all power, that it should not or would 
not be deemed improper or impertinent for us. who represent ninc- 
tenths of the Republican voters of Virginia, to state candidly and 
earnestly some of our grievances, which we have borne patiently as 
a party and as a class, and to call the attention of the Administra- 
tion thereto and ask, respectfully but firmly, that they be noticed, 
and, as far as is in the power of the Administration, that they be 
rectified, and the party relieved of unnecessary burdens, harmonized, 
inspired anew and prepared to run in the next presidential race and 
gloriously and triumphantly win: and whereas we deem it essential 
to this end that the party in the State should control its own in- 
ternal economy without the interference in our local politics of po- 
litical stock-brokers atd speculators to dictate Federal appointments 
over the head of our own State Committee, and to keep them there 
against our respectful protests and petitions: therefore — 

"Resolved, That while we reiterate unflinching fidelity to the prin- 
ciples of the Republican party and. per consequence, fealty to the 
Administration, we again respectfully ask and think it right for the 
Administration to stretch out its hand and save us and the organi- 
zation as it exists, and which we acknowledge, by recognizing such 
organization as the supreme power of the party, and listen to their 
behests rather than to those interested individuals, whether they 
live here, in Massachusetts, or any other portion of the land. 

"Resolved. That we look with the utmost anxiety and alarm at the 
condition of disorganization and disaffection existing in the party 
in the State, caused by the appointment of a number of Federal of- 
fice-holders all over the State, many instances of which occur to us 
who are pronounced Democrats, who would blush Judas-like were 
Republican sentiments imputed to them, and of others who are an 
incubus to the party and are preparing the way for a precipitate 
desertion into the Democratic lines in case the late lamented Con- 
federacy shall succeed in establishing its power and supremacy again 
in 1876."-f3 

The proposed amendment of the constitution in.nkin.tx petty 
larceny a cause of disfranchisement was discussed by members 
of the convention and denounced as an unjust discrimination 
against their race. Rcsohition? were adopted dcnouncinj? it."''^ 

One delegate said, "It is hard that a poor negro cannot take a 
few chickens without losing his right to vote." 



" Affleton's .Inituol Cyr/o/'(7i'rfi(J, 1875. 

''* See contemporary newspapers, the Richmond Distatch. U'hif: 
and Examiner: .Ipplcton's Annual Cyelof'aedia, 1875. 



96 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

The effects of the end of carpetbag rule and of the operation 
of the new legislation undoing Reconstruction may be seen in 
the results of the elections of 1877 and 1878. As the result of 
the former elections the number of Republican members of the 
House of Delegates was reduced from twenty-two to nine. 
There were only seven negroes left in the legislature. The rep- 
resentatives elected to Congress in 1878 were Conservatives 
with the exception of one Republican from the Fourth District. 
Now that the Conservative party was no longer held together 
by the race question and that the Republican party had become 
practically a negro organization, the number of independent 
members of the House of Delegates had increased from six to 
twenty-three. 

The negroes, who had been "noisy and jubilant" over Hayes's 
election in the national contest of 1876,^''"' did not realize that 
this election meant a compromise between the North and the 
South, nor did they suspect that it marked the beginning of a 
deadlock between the great political parties which was to exist 
from 1875 to 1879, and which was to prevent all interference 
in Southern affairs by the national government. Furthermore 
there were many in both sections who had begun to say, in the 
words of an eminent Southerner, 'T am tired of this turmoil 
and distrust. I want a country I can love." ^^ 

After the elimination of the carpetbaggers and the undoing 
of a large part of their work in the early seventies, the race 
question in politics had become of little importance until the 
debt controversy gave origin to the Readjuster party in 1879. 
The recrudescence of the race question has occurred in Virginia 
politics only in times of political stress, when the negro vote has 
been necessary to keep a certain element in power. Just as the 
carpetbaggers had thus won supremacy for a short time during 
Reconstruction, and had made the race question a political issue 
during the several years that followed in order to regain their 

'•^ .\lderman and Gordon, J. L. M. Curry, A Biography, p. 235. 

•■" Ibid., p. 2:55. vSee also p. 238. Hayes offered Curry a place in 
his cabinet and even considered giving General Joseph E. Johnston 
a place there. 



THE NEGRO IX VIKCFNIA I'OI.ITICS 97 

supremacy, so General William Mahone — taking advantage of 
the debt problem — built up a powerful political machine with 
the aid of the negro votes, dominated State politics from 1879 
to 1883 and, ;ifter his defeat, continm-d lo make the race (jues- 
tion a campaign issue for several years longer with the hope 
of regaining power. 

The Readjuster Movement in X'irginia grew out of the in- 
ability of the peoi)le of Virginia in their crippled financial con- 
dition to construct a satisfactory policy in regard to the State 
debt. The history of this movement is one of great interest and 
importance, not only as a chaj)ter in Virginia history during a 
critical period but also as an account of a reaction against tiie 
ancient order of things, which occurred between 1876 and 1900. 

This reaction, which we are about to study, resembled Re- 
construction in its radical tendencies, its type of leaders and 
their use of the negro vote to further their ends. And just as 
the drawing of the color line during Reconstruction brought a 
reaction against the negroes in the Southern States, which 
showed itself in election frauds, intimidation and, finally, 
amendments to the state constitutions, so this second movement 
brought its reaction in the form of a new tyjie of politicians in 
the South — the anti-negro politicians — and forced the adojjtion 
of new state constitutions around the year 1900. 

—7 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Readjuster Movement in Virginia. 1879-188v3. 

It is not in the scope of this paper to give a detailed account 
of the Readjuster movement in Virginia.^ But since the suc- 
cess of the Readjusters was obtained with the aid of the sohd 
negro vote, it is not out of place here to give briefly the history 
and results of the movement. 

The issue of the State debt had not been squarely faced be- 
fore 1879. The Funding Act of March 1871 was unsatisfac- 
tory to all factions. The attempt to prevent the payment of in- 
terest coupons into the treasury had failed. As a consequence 
they continued to be received and the State could not meet its 
obligations to its public schools and its creditors. Governor 
Walker had taken entirely too hopeful a view of the financial 
condition of the State and of its ability to meet promptly its 
obligations. The creditors and the world at large had been 
given reason to believe from the official statements of the Gov- 
ernor that the resources of the State, which had suffered four 
years as a battle field, had been but little diminished. He had 
said that if the lands of the Commonwealth were fairly as- 
sessed there would be enough revenue, without increasing the 
rate of taxation, to pay the interest on the public debt and to 
defray the current expenses of the State government. After 
such official statements it was only natural that those who were 
not in the position to know the real state of affairs in Virginia 
should have looked upon the defalcation of the payment of in- 
terest on the bonds of the State and the attempts to defeat the 
purpose of the Funding Act as bad faith on the part of the peo- 
ple of Virginia, As a consequence British financiers were not 
only refusing to loan money in the State but were in some cases 



^ For a full account of the period, see C. C. Pearson, The Read- 
juster Movement iii J'irginia. 

98 



THE NEGRO IX VIKC.INIA I'OLITICS 99 

advising others to do the same. Thus further tiuaucial distress 
was caused. 2 

Governor Walker's cheerful estimate of the resources of \'ir- 
ginia were, unfortunately, not founded upon sufficient evidence, 
and proved to be highly exaggerated. To outward appearances 
the scars of war were to some extent healed. I'arm buildings, 
implements, fences and other property that had been taken 
away or destroyed by contending armies were being replaced. 
r)Ut the increase in such property was balanced by the capi- 
tal borrowed for procuring it. The prosperity of Virginia, 
whose population was almost entirely rural, depended upon its 
agriculture. The national census of 1870 shows that the num- 
ber of acres in cultivation within the limits of the ])resent State 
of Virginia was less by over two millions in 1870 than in 1860, 
that the number of pounds of tobacco had been reduced two- 
thirds, and that the number of bushels of corn and wheat had 
been reduced to about half. Of twenty- four and a half million 
acres of land in the State only about eight million one hundred 
thousand were improved farm land. This productive portion 
had to bear the burden of taxation for the entire State. .Vdded 
to the loss of men and capital during the war, there had been 
since its close bad seasons for crops and a lack of dependable 
labor. The labor system had become completely disorganized 
and demoralized. The negroes were still enjoying the novelty 
of their new estate and could not be depended upon to remain at 
work. On the average they were producing little besides food 



^ The Nation, November 1. 1874; Journal and Poiumcnts of the 
House of Delegates, 1874-1875. Document No. 1. 

In his message of March 27. 1874 to the legislature. Governor 
Kemper said. "The State credit is prostrate. The best bonds of 
Virginia rate lower in the Stock Exchange of London than those of 
Egypt. Turkey or Peru, and our credit ranks in the grade of such 
countries as Mexico and San Domingo. No grosser fallacy can be 
conceived than the one which claims that a ommonwealth can 
flourish while its credit is in a state of prostration or dishonor." 

Capital was badly needed to develop the resources of the State. 
Journal of the House of Delegates, 1874, pp. 348-.349. 



100 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

and clothing for themselves, and there was no other labor to be 
had in a large section of the State. ^ 

The statement of Governor Walker that the state assessment 
of property was too low was erroneous. The national valua- 
tion of all property, real and personal, in Virginia in 1870, 
was $409,588,133. The state valuation of the same property 
was $336,686,433.23 or 82 per cent of the national assessment. 
In the United States as a whole the national valuation of that 
year was 32 per cent higher than the state valuations ; and in 
the six New England states together with New York and Penn- 
sylvania, a contiguous group of prosperous states, the aggre- 
gate valuation of the respective state assessments was only 42 
per cent of the aggregate Federal valuation in those states. 
This was evidence of the fact that the state assessment in Vir- 
ginia was relatively very high."* Virginia was at a lower ebb 
economically in 1875 than in the hopeful year just after peace 
was made in 1865. The decrease in realty values had occurred 
in all the counties of the State except in seventeen or eighteen, 
mostly white counties of the Southwest ; and in a large part of 
the black belt they decreased over twenty-five per cent.^ 

The State's revenue for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
1873, excluding the cost of collection, amounted to $2,421,945.41. 
During the year there was collected from the people in local 
taxes, excluding the cost of collection, $2,217,538.49. Thus 
there was a net aggregate of $4,639,483.90 paid yearly (this be- 
ing an average paid) in taxes by the people. Large amounts 
collected as corporation and Federal taxes were not included in 
this sum.^' 

Payment in full that year of the interest on the State debt as- 



^ Journal and Documents of the House of Delegates, 1874-1875, p. 
16; Ibid., Document No. 1; P. A. Bruce, The Plantation Negro as a 
Freedman, chs. XII, XIII, XIV; contemporary accounts in news- 
papers and personal reminiscences. 

* Journal and Documents of the House of Delegates, 1874-1875, Doc- 
ument No. 1. 

'^ C. C. Pearson, The Rcadjustcr Movement in I'irginia, map oppo- 
site page 66. 

° Journal and Document of the House of Delegates, 1874, p. 346 ff. 



TIIF, NFC.RO IX VIKCIMA I'f)LITICS 



101 



sumed by the Funding Act would have necessitated the increase 
in the State and local taxes (exclusive of corjioration and Fed- 
eral taxes) to $5,964,425.77 because the revenues for that fiscal 
year had fallen $1,324,941.87 short of the necessary amount for 
the support of the government and the payment of this interest." 
In his inaugural address of January 1. 1874, Governor Kem- 
per voiced the sentiments of the conservative white ])eople of 
the State when he said. "Obhgations to pubhc creditors, l)ind- 
ing the honor and good faith of the CommonweaUh, should he 
fulfilled to the utmost of her abihty in any eveiU and under all 
circumstances. No other calamity could inflict greater detri- 
ment, either moral or pecuniary, upon the whole body of the 
people than a deliberate breach of public honor." lie recr)m- 
mended the taxation of such subjects as had been exempted in 
the past, strict economy and the elimination of all unnecessary 
offices. He hoped that by these means Virginia could meet her 
obligations withotU further increase in the existing taxes. 



' State Collections and Disbursements in Virginia. 1869-1877: 



Year 



lS69-'70 
1870-'71 
1871-'72 
1872-'73 
1873-*74 
lS74-'75 
1875-'76 
1876-'77 



Total State Ordinary e.x- 

revenue penses of 
govern- 
ment 

$1,487,353.84 $1,041,682.22 
2,732,456.75 1.243,682.66 



2,160,598.36 
2.421,945.41 
2,578,938.25 
2,647,790.05 
2.679,339.66 
2,505,387.17 



1.098,808.83 

1,082,536.00 

1,057,975.14 

980,450.89 

975,282.85 

967,393.42 



Extraor- 
dinary 
expen.'^es 
of govern- 
ment 

$ 17,933.60 
129,548.05 
40,026.83 
13,885.54 
55.407.52 
28,177.65 
138,432.83 
92,252.52 



Paid from Paid on in- 
State treas- terest on 
ury for pub- debt 

lie schools 



Total-dis- 
bursements 



$ 346,034.86 $1,405,650.6? 



$382,000.00 
385,994.26 
375.000.00 
345,000.00 
423,000.00 
443.000.00 
326,266.46 



99.980.05 
639,114.65 
1,290,758.79 
1,691,191.96 
1,417,345.41 
1.105,305.88 
1.062.110.17 



1.855.210.7f 
2.163,944.57 
2,762. lfiO.32 
3.149.574.62 
2.848.'.l73.9." 
2.662.02 1..M' 
2.448.022.5; 



^Journal ami Documi-nts of the House of Delegates, 1874-1875. Doc- 
ument Xo. 1, p. 24; Senate Journal and Documents, 1875-1876, p. 15. 
tSenate Journal and Documents, 1875-1876, p. i 5. 
JHouse Journal and Documents, 1876-1877, p. 11. 

\\Ibid., 1877-1878, p. 12. 



102 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

These measures, however, could be taken, for the most part 
only by amending the constitution — a process requiring at least 
two years. And there was need of immediate relief. Further 
direct taxes on real and personal property would mean, at this 
time, the virtual confiscation of private property. Some other 
remedy was necessary. In a message to the legislature in 
March, 1874, Governor Kemper said, "Our relief is in the res- 
toration of confidence and understanding between the State and 
her creditors ; in such a settlement of the public indebtedness 
as will restore respect in our good faith, as will command the 
assent of creditors and secure to them the regular payment of 
the utmost interest we are now able to pay, only postponing 
such part of our undertaking as our poverty renders impossible 
of performance for the present. It is certainly in our power, 
if we now enact a just and efficient system of taxation, and 
prudently husband our resources, to pay, henceforward, four 
per centum per annum on the entire debt intended to be as- 
sumed by the Funding Act. It is believed that an understand- 
ing can be had with creditors by which we might guarantee 
with certainty the regular and punctual payment, in semi-an- 
nual installments and at convenient places, of two-thirds of the 
accruing interest for the present, giving proper certificates for 
the deferred interest and providing for the full interest, to- 
gether with all arrearages on interest account, as soon as our 
steadily increasing resources shall permit." ^ 

In order to compromise with the creditors, and thereby ef- 
fect an honorable settlement of the debt question, the Governor 
and Treasurer of the State, with the approval of the legislature, 
called a meeting of the home and foreign bondholders in Rich- 
mond in November, 1874. The meeting bore no immediate fruit 
in legislation, but the bondholders were made to realize the real 
financial condition of the State, which they had never realized 
before. Hugh McCulloch was a representative of the foreign 
bondholders at the meeting ; and it was due, doubtless, to his 
influence that these bondholders were afterwards less severe in 
their criticism of Virginia's altitude towards them. 

* Journal and Docuiuoits of the House of Delegates, 1874, p. 348, 



THE NEGRO TX VIRCIXIA I'DI.lTICS 103 

The elections of 1877 brought into the legislature twenty-two 
independents. The elimination of the Republican party as a 
considerable factor in State politics, the subse(|uent relief from 
the race cjuestion for a time, the grange movements, and the 
State debt, divided tiie voters of the State into numerous fac- 
tions. But most of the indc])endents and not a few of the oth- 
ers were followers of Mahone and advocated his plans of "re- 
adjustment," or partial repudiation of the interest on the State 
debt. Mahone had proved a failure in the extensive railroad 
interests which he controlled. He had also failed by a small 
margin to receive the nomination for governor in the Demo- 
cratic convention of 1877. He therefore seized upon tlie idea 
of readjustment as a means of bringing himself into power. 
The general feeling of discontent, the looseness in party lines, 
the bad economic condition of the State, and the certainty of 
gaining the entire negro vote if he opposed the conservative 
whites made the time propitious for his plot. Furthermore he 
now had a large following in the General Assembly. The 
election of Colonel F. W. M. Holliday, an able and staunch 
"debt-payer," however, neutralized Mahone's power in the leg- 
islature since the Readjuster vote was not strong enough to 
override the executive veto.^ Consequently the legislature 
spent two years of its existence in a hopeless contest with the 
Governor over the debt problem. At the end of its second ses- 
sion, however, the contest ended by the passage of the McCul- 
loch bill with the approval of Governor Holliday. ^'^ This bill 
ofifered the creditors new bonds with tax receivable cou])ons 
and bearing three per cent interest for ten years, four per cent 
interest for twenty years and five per cent interest for ten 
years. The bonds were free from taxation. I'ndcr the terms 
oflfered with these bonds it was provided that \'irginia be re- 



' Governor Holliday received his education at Yale College and 
at the University of Virginia. He was a gentleman of the old school, 
well read and well traveled. His record in the Confederate Army 
was good, and only the loss of an arm prevented him from receiving 
a higher commission. 

'"The bill was named for Hugh McCuIloch, who was largely re- 
sponsible for its existence. 



104 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

leased definitely from its obligation for West Virginia's third 
of the debt. 

The new funding scheme was supported by the Council of 
Foreign Bondholders of London, and by prominent New York- 
bankers. Public oi)inion at home and abroad favored it, and 
the support of the bondholders, which was necessary for its 
success, seemed assured. The success of the bill depended 
upon the ability of the State to meet the interest payments fully 
and promptly. This was difficult but not impossible from the 
point of view of the debt-payers. So difficult was the task 
ahead for the State, which was in a most deplorable condition 
financially, that Mahone and Massey, the Readjuster leaders, 
found some very capable and honest supporters. But the lead- 
ing classes supported the McCulloch Act.^i This act not only 
afYorded the creditors a satisfactory adjustment of the debt, 
but also afforded the State a relief from its worst fiscal bur- 
dens until it was to grow strong enough to bear them. It be- 
came a law on March 28, 1879, in spite of the opposition of 
Mahone and his followers. 

Soon after the elections of 1877 Mahone had begun to or- 
ganize a party to force "readjustment" upon the State. Since 
the Funding Act of March 1871 had been upheld by the high- 
est State court, and all attempts to prevent the execution of the 
law declared unconstitutional, the only resource left to Mahone 
for defeating the act was to fill the offices of all departments of 
the State with his followers, who would stop at nothing to ren- 
der the coupons useless as tax-paying instruments. With this 
end in view Mahone called a convention which met at Rich- 
mond in Mozart Hall, February 25 and 26, 1879. All parts of 
the State were represented. There were present men of every 
political complexion — liberal Conservatives. Republicans, Green- 
backers and independents of various kinds. The negroes had 
played very little part so far in the movement. There were 
only a few in the convention, those from Halifax and New 
Kent counties. Although no positive constructive policy in re- 
gard to the debt was proposed by the convention, there was a 



" House Journal and Documents, 1878-1879, p. 10. 



THE NEGRO IX VIRHIXIA POLITICS 105 

great deal said on the subject durino; the two days of the meet- 
ing. The Governor and the courts were accused of having be- 
trayed "the people" into the hands of brokers and bondholders. 
There was niuch talk of the rights of "the pcoj)le" and the 
iniquitv of the "rings." Mahone advocated a further lowering 
of the interest on the debt. Finally the convention adoj)ted a 
platform and an address to the ]x^O])le which enunciated the ar- 
ticles of faith of the Readjuster party, which was being 
formed. They were in substance as follows: That the Mc- 
Culloch Act was drawn up in behalf of the brokers and i)er- 
petuatcd the most objectionable features of the Funding .Act 
and added others; tiiat Virginia should disown all responsibil- 
ity for West Virginia's third of the debt : that "in any settle- 
ment with the State's creditors, the annual interest of the rec- 
ognized indebtedness must be brought within her revenues un- 
der the present rate of taxation ; that "the capacity of these 
revenues must be determined by deducting therefrom the nec- 
essary expenses of the government, the apportionment to 
schools, and reasonable appropriations for the support of the 
charitable institutions of the State;" that any settlement, to be 
final, must rest "upon the sovereignty of the State;" that no 
settlement could be made except by the will of the people of the 
State and subject to the alteration of the legislature at any 
time ; that "the rate of taxation is as high as can be borne, and. 
instead of entering into any understanding that may necessitate 
an increase of taxation, a diminution in public burdens should 
be provided for." 

The intentions of the Readjusters were here made i)lain. A 
large part of the interest upon the State debt was to be r -nu- 
diated, in spite of former contracts with the bondholders and 
the decisions of the courts on the .subject. It was claimed that 
the State was bankrupt and could not do otherwise. A party 
organization was formed with General Mahone as chairman of 
the State executive committee and therefore head of the jiarty.'^ 
The leaders of this new party were mostly self-made men. 



" For proceedings of this convention, see the Richmond Whig 
and the Richmond Dispatch of February 26 and 27, 1879. 



106 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

Some of them were honest in their convictions that circum- 
stances justified readjustment, others were more careful of 
their own material welfare and political advancement than for 
a nice observance of ethical principles. Of such as these latter 
was William Mahone. There were some members of the old 
aristocracy among the Readjusters, but they were few. Among 
these were James Barbour, William E. Cameron (editor and 
the mayor of Petersburg) and John S. Wise. 

Next to Mahone in power and the most interesting figure in 
the Readjuster party was John E. Massey, then of Albemarle 
county. "Parson" Massey (as he was called) was, like Ma- 
hone, a self-made man. He had been, respectively, teacher, 
lawyer, preacher and farmer. He had been a Conservative in 
politics but was led to advocate readjustment through the be- 
lief that the Funding Act was unjust and that the people were 
not receiving fair treatment at the hands of those in power at 
Richmond. Just as Mahone was the master organizer and in- 
triguer of the movement, so Massey was the campaigner par 
excellence. Possessed of a reputation for piety, a knowledge 
of human nature, a cheerful countenance, fluency and a ready 
wit, he went about the State speaking from the platform on 
week days and from the pulpit on Sundays. His readiness at 
repartee was more efifective than logic in discomforting his op- 
ponents, and was especially effective among the unlettered 
whites and negroes. ^^ 

Among the leading Funders (the opponents of the Readjust- 
ers) were Governor Holliday ; John Randolph Tucker, founder 
of the law school of Washington and Lee University and for a 
long time professor there ; John W. Daniel, later United States 
senator and long prominent in Virginia politics ; General W. C. 
Wickham, a prominent business man and a conservative Repub- 
lican ; and J. L. M. Curry, a professor in Richmond College 
and later embassador to Madrid. The Funders had the sup- 
port of the Richmond papers, with the exception of the Whig, 
which was under Mahone's control. Furthermore they repre- 



" The Autobiography of JoJni li. Massey. 



TIIK NFX.R() IN VIRGIXIA POLITICS 107 

sented the great mass of the respectable and inteUigent whites 
of the State 

The campaign of 1879 was vigorously conducted on hoth 
sides. ^■^ Neither party Ijid for the colored votes at first, and 
the race question was shuinied. In September, however. Mas- 
sey made a speech in Petersburg in whicli he intimated that ne- 
groes would be welcomed as Readjusters. The Readjusters 
spread the rumor among the negroes that the Funders wished 
to increase their burdens, and that their own party would give 
them more rights. Churches and societies were mad<' use of 
to spread the rumor and to win the colored vote for tiie party.'"' 

The Funders now tried to divide the colored vote through 
some of the negro leaders. They hired negro speakers, estab- 
lished clubs among the colored i)eople. ran Republican candi- 
dates to split the Readjuster vote and in six counties at least 
they voted for these candidates, two of whom were negroes. 
But these efforts did not succeed. The negroes remained un- 
der the control of their old leaders, who were now on the side 
of the Readjusters, and voted against the majority of tiie 
whites just as they had always done.^^' The campaign ended 
amid great excitement. The Readjusters with the aid of their 
colored allies won both houses of the legislature. They elected 
fifty-six out of one hunflred delegates, eleven of whom were 
negroes; and they elected a majority of Readjuster senators, 
two of whom were negroes.'' 

The most absorbing topic before the newly-elected General 
Assembly was, of course, the State debt. With a majority in 
both houses of the legislature, the Readjusters passed a bill 
known as the Riddleberger Bill,'^ which embodied the plaii of 

" For the Democratic platform, see the Richmond State. .-Xiigust 
8, 1879. 

" C. C. Pearson, The Readjuster Moveiiieiit in rirgiiiia. p. 12.^. 

" W. L. Royall. J'irgiitta State Debt Coittroxrrsy, pp. 27-.37. 

'' The Richmond Dispatch, November 14, 1879; The Warrock-Rich- 
ardson Almanac, 1879; Appleton's Annual Cyclopa-dia. 1879. 

'* The Nation (March 4, 1880, xxx, 166) makes the following com- 
ment on the passage of this bill: "Under the lead of a popular but 
unscrupulous demagogue they [the Readjusters] made a dash for the 



108 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

settlement that became the central feature of the debt contro- 
versy from this time until its final settlement. It was vetoed 
by the Governor as a violation of the constitution of the United 
States, of the constitution of Virginia and of "the spirit which 
has ever moved and inspired the traditions of the Common- 
wealth." Since legislation of this kind was unable to escape 
Governor Holliday's veto, the Readjusters had to content them- 
selves with filling the State offices with their men, and with 
improving their party machinery in order to insure the election 
of a Readjuster governor in 1881. 

The appointment of county judges in the hundred counties 
of the State fell to this legislature. There were comparatively 
few reputable lawyers in the Readjuster party. Consequently, 
in order to get men who would be true to the party, many in- 
competent and unscrupulous men were chosen. As a rule the 
new appointees did not bring credit upon their party and in 
many cases caused much scandal. To make way for these new 
men the supreme court judges and about three-fourths of the 
county and corporation judges were removed. This tampering 
with the judiciary, which was traditionally the most honored 
and incorruptible part of the State government, marks the be- 
ginning of the reaction against Mahone which led to his down- 
fall.^'* 

The wholesale removal of officers did not end here. Boards 
of directors of the State asylums and educational institutions 
were removed and their places filled with Readjusters. In like 
manner the county and city superintendents of schools, and 



control of the State government, one of the chief railway lines of 
the State, and, the United States Senatorship; finding 'readjustment' 
a popular means to these ends, they used it with great success. 
* * * The fact that most of the Republicans voted with the re- 
pudiators, however, is a really discouraging thing. It contradicts 
the inference, drawn by every one at the time of the election, that 
the color line was broken; and they appear to have got nothing of 
any account in exchange for their adherence to what is probably as 
disreputable an organization as now exists in this country." 

'° The Autobiography of John U. Massey, pp. 216-217; W. L. Royall, 
State Debt Controversy, ch. 5. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 109 

even the State superintendent of education. Dr. RulTner. were 
made to give place to men from tiic i)arty in jjuwer. Dr. RutT- 
ner was replaced by a man lacking both in mental and moral 
fitness for the position in which he was placed.-" 

The Readjusters claimed that this ruthless use of the spoils 
system w-as necessary to rid the government of inefficient 
"Bourbons" and to let "the jieople" have more say in the gov- 
ernment. But the appointments made in no wise justified the 
removals. Mahone was elected to the United States Senate 
and took his seat at the time of the special session beginning 
March 4. 1881. Two years later, H. H. Riddleberger. another 
prominent Readjuster. was elected as his colleague. They 
served until 1887 and 1889, respectively. 

The Readjuster party had organized as a faction of the Dem- 
ocratic party, and Mahone had denied emphatically that he had 
any agreement or sympathy with the Republican party. Had 
Mahone and his associates declared themselves Republican 
sympathisers at first they would have lost the support of that 
part of the native white people that followed them. Xo white 
Virginian of either faction was in the mood to join their com- 
mon enemy. The memory of the evil influence of the Repub- 
lican party in Virginia affairs in the past could not be forgot- 
ten ; and now while they w^ere combating the evils done by that 
party, the Republican politicians and newspapers at the North 
were prodding the South with harsh criticisms and pious advice 
which could not veil the sectionalism and partizanship back of 
it all.2i 



*' C. C. Pearson, the Readjuster Movement in J'iri^ini^i, p. 148; .-lu- 
tobiography of John E. Massey, p. 204. 

" The following editorial from the New York Times of January r.. 
1880, is not an extreme example of this sort of thing: 

"The old slave masters must domineer and tyrannize; they must 
keep the colored man in subjection and misery; they must raise a 
barrier of intolerance against enlightened ideas, and fight against 
the incursion of those who would work for free Mistitutions. • ♦ ♦ 
But one great change they must recognize. They can never agam 
tyrannize over the nation. * * * The civilization of the South 
is of the past. * * * It must go down, and the sooner, the bet- 
ter for the South and the better for the nation." 



110 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

In the fall of 1879 Mahone secretly promised the Republican 
leaders the support of his party in the presidential elections of 
the following year. In order to do this and at the same time 
keep his Democratic followers in line for the State elections of 
1881, Mahone induced his party convention to reject the prof- 
fer of the Funder Democrats to coalesce in national politics on 
an equal footing, and to present thereby a solid front for Han- 
cock and English. As a result both Funders and Readjusters 
nominated electors for the Democratic candidates although only 
the Funder Democrats were recognized by the national Demo- 
cratic organization as the true Democratic party in Virginia. 
The Republicans were encouraged by this dissension in the 
Democratic ranks to make a vigorous campaign in the State. 
There were now three sets of candidates in the field. By draw- 
ing ofif votes from the Democratic party Mahone had accom- 
plished his purpose of aiding the Republicans while nominally 
refusing to support that party.22 So cleverly had this master 
politician worked his plan that many Virginians continued to 
believe that he was as ardent a Democrat as he still professed 
to be. Circumstances, however, not only made him show his 
true colors but also gave him great notoriety in Congress. 

When the Senate was about to organize in March 1881, by 
the appointment of committees, it consisted of seventy-six 
members. Of these thirty-seven were Republicans and thirty- 
seven were Democrats. Of the remaining two. Senator Davis, 
an Independent from Illinois, had been elected by Democratic 
voters and had declared that he would affiliate with their party. 
It was evident therefore that the vote of the Readjuster Ma- 
hone. who had been elected by Democratic voters, would decide 
whether there would be a Democratic or a Republican organi- 
zation, since the Republican president of the Senate could cast 
a deciding vote in case of a tie. General Mahone, now forced 
to take sides oi:)enly, cast in his fortune with the RepubHcans as 
he had already secretly bargained to do as early as the fall of 
1879. Riddleberger followed his example in 1883. These men 



" W. L. Royall. State Debt Controversy, ch. iv; Appleton's Annual 
Cyclopaedia, 1880. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRCIXIA POIJTICS 111 

were quite willing to exchange their votes for special favors at 
the hands of the party. They were only used as pawns hy the 
Republicans and received consideration only so long as their 
votes were of special value to the party. So engrossed were 
they in political afifairs in Virginia that they took little interest 
in national politics except to cast the deciding vote for the Re- 
publicans when called upon to do so. 

Mahone's position in the Senate gave him prestige and com- 
plete control over Federal appointments in Virginia. Me was 
also in a position now to obtain campaign funds in the Xorth. 
He used his increased prestige and power to strengthen his party 
and his own position in that party. The Readjuster party was 
rapidly changing into Mahone's party. By working (|uietly 
through his confederates, Mahone laid his plans to further in- 
crease his power. In the fall of 1881 he had the following 
pledge sent to each of the candidates for the legislature for his 
signature : 

"I hereby pledge myself to stand by the Readjuster party and 
platform, and to go into caucus with the Readjuster members of the 
legislature, and to vote for all measures, nominees and candidates 
to be elected by the legislature that meets in Richmond, as the cau- 
cus may agree upon. 

"Given under my hand and seal this day of September, 

A. D. 1881. "23 

Judge Lybrook received one of these documents enclosed with the 
following letter from Fernald, the collector of internal revenue at 
Danville, Va. : 

"U. S. Internal Revenue Office, 
Danville, Va., Sept. 14, 1881. 
Dear Judge, — • 

I send you herewith two 'pledges' to sign one and have the party 
nominee for your county to sign the other one, and return to me, 
and T will forward them to Gen. Mahoiic, who directed me to do 
this. 

Of course it is nothing for an honest man to do and sign liis hand 
to his faith. Please attend to this promptly. 

Fernald." 
This is an illustration of Mahone's methods. 



^ Letter of Judge Lybrook's in the Richmond Disptach, September 

12, 1882. 



112 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

Since Mahone was the political boss of the State, Readjuster 
candidates had little chance for election without his endorse- 
ment ; and the returns that fall showed that most of the candi- 
dates that were elected had signed the pledge. 

In the elections of 1881, the Readjusters chose a majority in 
both houses of the General Assembly and all the high State of- 
ficials. The following Readjuster candidates were elected : for 
Governor, William E. Cameron, a Readjuster-Democrat ; for 
Lieutenant-Governor, J. F. Lewis, a Republican; and for At- 
torney-General, F. S. Blair, a Greenbacker. Mahone defeated 
the nomination for Governor of Massey (who next to Mahone 
was the most powerful man in the party) because Massey 
would not submit to his pledges or follow him blindly. ^^ Mas- 
sey could have thwarted Mahone's schemes had he been chosen 
governor. 

Mahone now had every reason to believe that he was su- 
preme in Virginia politics, since he had control of his party in 
the State and the aid of the administration. President Garfield 
had given him only negative support, but he had been assassi- 
nated in July 1881, and President Arthur rendered Mahone ef- 
fective aid in the fall campaign by putting an end to the inde- 
pendent Republican move that was threatening to separate the 
Republicans from the Readjusters in Virginia. ^^ Senator Don 
Cameron and other supporters of the Administration also ren- 
dered Mahone and his party great aid in the campaign of 1881 
by collecting funds through assessments and subscriptions to 
provide Mahone with funds to pay the poll taxes of the negroes 
in order that they might vote the Readjuster ticket. 2« Office- 
holders throughout the State were assessed by Mahone for 
campaign purposes. 2''' 

In spite of some discontent in the Readjuster party with Ma- 
hone and his political methods, the party was held together by 



" W. L. Royall, State Debt Controversy; Autobiography of John B. 
Massey. 

** W. L. Royall, State Debt Controversy, p. 54; Appleton's Annual 
Cyclopaedia, 1881. 

^ T. V. Cooper, American Politics. 

" Autobiography of John E. Massey, pp. 199, 206. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 113 

the fact that the debt question was still unsettled. In 1882 the 
Readjusters had for the first time an opportunity to readjust 
the State debt according to their original purpose and un- 
hampered by the Governor's veto. Accordingly they passed 
two acts known as "Coupon Killers," which virtually destroyed 
the tax-receivable coupons of the Funding Act of 1871. These 
act^ provided that if coupons were presented in payment of 
taxes, a like amount in cash had to be tendered at the same 
time. The coupons were then received for identification and 
verification by the collector, who should certify them to the cor- 
poration or county cou'-t. which should, in turn, empanel a jury 
to decide whether they were genuine or not. If they were de- 
clared to be genuine, the cash received from the taxpayer 
should be returned to him and the coupons received in the treas- 
ury in payment of taxes. The reason given in the preamble of 
the act for its existence was that there were many stolen and 
counterfeit bonds with coupons attached in circulation. Rut 
there was not sufficient evidence to show that such strenuous 
measures were necessary on this account.-^ These acts vir- 
tually destroyed the coupons by making their acceptance in pay- 
ment of taxes depend upon such difficulties and expense, and 
the probability of their acceptance by the State was much les- 
sened by the fact that the judges of the county and corporation 
courts were now for the most part Readjusters. The Read- 
justers were correct in believing that the remedy given the 
bondholders was sufficient to prevent the laws from being un- 
constitutional, as inijxairing the obligation of contract, (^tlier 
"coupon killers" followed from time to time, and in spite of 
much litigation the scheme won out.-'^ 



" Acts of January 14 and January 26, 1882. House Jouninl and 
Documents, 1881-1882, Documents 2 and 8; Senate Jouinal and Docu- 
ments, 1881-1882. Document 15. Antoni 7-. Greenliow. 107 U. S. R. 
p. 793; W. L. Royall, State Debt Controversy. For Readjuster view, 
see Autobiography of John E. Massey, pp. 4:?-47. Massey oripinatcd 
this method of killing the coupons. 

'' W. L. Royall, State Debt Contro7'ersy. pp. .").'> ff: W. I- Royall. 
Some Reminiscences. Royall was attorney for the hondholdcrs in 
their fight over these Readjuster acts. 



114 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

After the passage of the first two "coupon killers," the leg- 
islature of 1882 passed, with some qualifications, the Riddle- 
berger Bill, which had been vetoed by Governor Holliday two 
years previously. ^^ This statute placed the new principal of 
the State debt at $21,035,377.15, which was to bear interest at 
three per cent. Under this arrangement the annual interest 
was reduced over fifty per cent and the principal was scaled 
about ten million dollars. The bonds issued under this act were 
known as "Riddlebergers." The bonds and coupons were not 
exempt from taxation, nor were the coupons tax-receivable. 
Interest on the bonds was to be paid out of any money not oth- 
erwise appropriated. 

In January 1882, Mahone and his machine leaders ofTered to 
re-elect Massey Auditor of Public Accounts, but only on condi- 
tion that he submit to caucus rules. He refused to do this and 
was deposed accordingly by Mahone, who told Massey's friends 
that he had declined to accept the nomination of the Readjuster 
caucus. 31 But Massey had not been buried politically, as fur- 
ther events proved, for now that the aims of the original Read- 
justers had been practically accomplished, he was free to op- 
pose Mahoneism. 

There were in the General Assembly of Virginia at this time 
a majority of fourteen Readjusters in the House of Delegates 
and a majority of six in the Senate. Mahone left his place in 
the Senate at Washington and came to Richmond in order to 
formulate such laws for his caucus as would give him supreme 
control over State afifairs. But there were m the legislature 
four Readjuster senators, two former Democrats and two for- 
mer Republicans, who had refused to sign the Mahone caucus 
pledge and were therefore not bound by the caucus. 3- These 
men, with the aid and encouragement of John E. Massey, voted 
with the Funders and were thereby able to defeat Mahone's 



"' Act of February U, 1882, Acts of Assembly, 1881-1882. p. 88. 

^' Autobiography of John B. Massey, ch. xviii. 

" They were Samuel H. Newberry of Bland county and Peyton G. 
Hale of Grayson county, Democrats; and A. M. Lybrook of Patrick 
county and B. F. Williams of Nottoway county, Republicans. 



THE NEGRO IN VIKGIMA POLITICS 115 

measures by a majority of one in the Senate, (^n account of 
the importance of the votes of these senators at this critical 
time they were known as the "Big Four." •'•'' 

The character of the bills introduced by the caucus and de- 
feated by the aid of these four Readjusters indicate how greatly 
Virginia's welfare was menaced by Mahoneism, which was the 
outgrowth of Readjusterism. A bill was introduced by the 
caucus providing for the removal of a great manv nt' the petty 
officers of the State, such as notaries public, public school trus- 
tees and commissioners of chancery, in order to make vacancies 
for Mahone's followers. The appointment of many of these 
was to be made in Richmond in order to bring them under Ma- 
hone's central control. An attempt was made to gerrymander 
the Congressional districts in such a manner as to increase the 
number of representatives in the black counties, which sup- 
ported Mahone and the Republican party. ^Mahone's paper, 
the Richmond IVhig openly asserted that should the bill, which 
had already passed the house by a large majority, be passed in 
the Senate, Virginia would send eight, instead of two, admin- 
istration representatives to Washington. The IFIiig regretted 
that still more could not be sent and added. "But it is the best 
that can be done, and we are content . . .Already we 

have at Washington two senators and two rcjirescntatives who 
stand firmly and cordially by President .Arthur; and under this 
bill, if passed by the Senate, our liberal forces will send to 
Washington six more supporters of the Federal administration 
than we now have. To intrench and further it. the present ap- 
portionment bill is avowedlv framed — to elect eight congress- 
men out of ten who shall be committed and pledged to supjiort 
President Arthur and his administration." ^^ Another caucus 
bill provided for the creation of a board of railroad commis- 
sioners, to be chosen by the Governor. The board was to have 
complete supervisory control of the railroads and could dismiss 
employees at its pleasure. The i)urpose of this was to bring 



" Autobiography of John E. Masscy, ch. xi.\. Royall, State Debt 
Controversy. 

" The Whig, April 10. 1882. 



116 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

the railroad systems of the State with their numerous employ- 
ees under Alahone's control. Another caucus measure pro- 
vided that judicial sales be made only through a commissioner 
of sales appointed in each county by the Governor. Commis- 
sioners of sales had always been appointed by the courts as oc- 
casion demanded, and no fault had been found with that sys- 
tem. Furthermore a bill was introduced which provided that 
the commissioners thus chosen select a newspaper in each of 
their respective counties and cities which should have the ex- 
clusive right to publish their official notices. In this way Ma- 
hone would secure both an agent and a subsidized newspaper 
in each county and city of the State. These and similar bills 
designed to further Mahone's interests were introduced into the 
legislature by the Readjuster caucus and failed to pass only 
through the aid of the recalcitrant Big Four, whom Maiione 
tried in vain to seduce. ^^ 

Although these measures had been defeated, the Readjusters 
passed at this time all the laws that they had promised their 
constituents in the beginning. They made laws which settled 
the State debt along the lines originally advocated by their 
party, passed acts giving the apportionment for public school 
purposes priority over appropriations for paying the interest on 
the public debt and those for other causes, repealed the provi- 
sion in the constitution which made the payment of poll taxes a 
requisite for the franchise, and passed an act to suppress duel- 
ing. They had also defeated the "Bourbon" Funder leaders. 
The original purposes of the Readjuster party were therefore 
accomplished. The issue in the next succeeding campaign was 
Mahoneism. The Readjusters now became known as the Ma- 
honeites, and the Funders, Anti-Mahoneites, with little change 
of personnel in either party. The most substantial element of 
the Readjuster party joined the Anti-Mahoneites, and the re- 



" Letter of Judge Lylirook (one of the Rig Four) in the Rich- 
mond Dispatch, September 12, 1882; B. B. Munford, "What is Ma- 
honeism?" in the Richmond State, September 13, 1889; W. L. Royall, 
State Debt Controversy, G8-69; Autobiography of John B. Massey, chs. 
xix, XX, xxi; Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1882. 



Till'. XKC.RO IN VIKC.IXIA POLITICS 117 

mainder of that party now consisted almost entirely of the old 
elements of the Radical party of former days, that is, the old 
alignment of Radical Republican leaders, drawn from the ranks 
of Northern immigrants and the less respectable native white 
politicians, with the solid mass of negro voters. Once more the 
national Republican party was allied with what was most dis- 
reputable in \'irginia politics. 

The new alignment in political affairs began to show itself in 
the Congressional elections of 1882. But the (|uestion of the 
constitutionality of the Coui)on and Riddleberger Acts had not 
been finally disposed of by the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and the Funders were still hoi)ing for a verdict against 
them. Then too, it was not an easy matter for some Readjust- 
ers to come back quickly into the party they had just bitterly 
opposed. However, their old leader, John E. Massey, was en- 
dorsed by the Democratic State Committee as a candidate for 
Congressman-at-large from Virginia. He was opposed by the 
Readjuster candidate, John S. Wise, and the candidate of the 
few straight-out Republicans in the State, Rev. John M. Daw- 
son, colored. Wise was elected, and Readjusters were also 
chosen from five of the nine Congressional districts. ■'*■' 

Mahone was once more victorious and the Conservative- 
Anti-Mahoneites were more than ever determined to crush iiim. 
But the Conservatives now realized that to defeat Mahone. their 
own organization must be strengthened and their platform fur- 
ther liberalized to satisfy the Readjusters who were joining 
their ranks. 

An opportunity soon presented itself to the Conservatives to 
effect a compromise with the moderate Readjusters. The de- 
cision of the Supreme Court in March 1883 that the act known 
as "Coupon Killer Xo. 1" was constitutional,-*" sustained the 
Readjuster party in its debt legislation. The Funders. who had 
been fighting to defend the Supreme Court in its former posi- 



" The First, Second. Fourth. Seventh and \ 'Uli. 

'' Antoni r. Greenhow. 17 U. S. RcM>ts, 7r.9: \V. L. Royall. State 
Debt Controversy, ch. vi; Appleton's .liuiua! Cyclopncdia, 1S83. "Ob- 
Hgation of Contracts." 



118 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

tion on the question, could now accept gracefully the status quo 
of the difficult question as here decided and unite both Funder 
and Readjuster Conservatives in the attempt to defeat the cor- 
rupt rule of Mahone. 

A Democratic State convention met in Lynchburg on July 
25, 1883. It was well attended and very enthusiastic. Massey 
and other ex-Read justers were present. The platform that was 
adopted advocated a number of liberal reforms, condemned 
Mahoneism, the bosses and the rings, and accepted the recent 
settlement of the debt controversy as final. ^^ This platform 
successfully united the Democratic party, and a new and com- 
plete organization upon an efficient basis gave the party new 
life. John S. Barbour, a railroad official of great executive 
ability, was made chairman of the State executive committee 
and much power over party affairs was placed in his hands. 
For the first time the Conservative party assumed the name 
"Democratic" — an evidence of the abandonment of old issues. ^^ 

But the strengthening of the Conservative-Democratic party 
did not necessarily mean its success. Mahone had a well or- 
ganized party completely under his control. The local. State 
and Federal offices were for the most part in the hands of his 
followers, and more effective still were the solid ranks of the 
negro voters, who followed Mahone's men with childlike con- 
fidence and obedience. With this solid mass of voters behind 
him, only a few white followers were necessary to give Mahone 
a majority of voters in the State. They could be found among 
those who had been estranged from the Democratic party by 
the bitterness of the State debt controversy, from among the 
unscrupulous or ignorant whites in the black counties and from 
among the whites of the white counties which were not con- 
fronted with the danger of "Africanization" in local affairs. 



'' "The Democratic party," said the platform, "accepts as final the 
recent settlement of the public debt pronounced constitutional by 
the courts of last resort, State and Federal, and will oppose all agi- 
tation of the question or a disturbance of that settlement by appeal 
or otherwise." The Richmond Dispatch, July 27, IBS.'!. 

" The Richmond Dispatch, July Sfi, 27, 28, 188.-5; the Richmond 
Whig, July 25, 26, Nov. 7, 1883. 



THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA POLITICS 119 

The alliance with the blacks, which was the chief element of 
Mahone's strength, proved, in the end, to be his undoing. In 
order to win and keep the fealty of the colored voters, Mahone 
had resorted to tactics which Radical leaders had ])reviously used 
in Virginia. The results were the same. Although his pre- 
tended love for the colored people resulted neither in legislation 
to benefit them nor in high rewards in the way of office, the col- 
ored people were given some local offices in the black counties ; 
and they were taught that the great body of whites, which made 
up the Democratic party, wished to bring them once more into 
bondage. Conditions similar to those that i)revailed during the 
Reconstruction period existed in numerous localities through- 
out the State at this time as the result. MuIkjuc tilled the of- 
fices of the State, counties and cities with men who were his 
willing tools Some were Northerners of the carpetbag tyj)e, 
others were native whites of the scalawag calil)re. The acts of 
these officers and their inflammatory speeches threw the credu- 
lous negroes into a high state of e.xcitement, and cau.sed many of 
them to be exceedingly disagreeable and unbearably im])crli- 
nent to the whites. 

The Democrats hesitated before drawing the color line, but 
as the campaign progressed the attitude of their opponents in- 
duced them to recognize the race question as an issue that could 
not be avoided in politics. "I am a Democrat because I am a 
white man and a Virginian," said Major John \V. Daniel to an 
audience in the Southwest.-*" Excitement grew more intense 
as the election approached, and the relations between the races 
grew more strained. The tenseness of feeling gave way in 
Danville to a street fight between the races that completely 
turned the scales in behalf of the Democrats in the elections, 
which came a few days later, throughout Virginia. This con- 
flict was known as the "Danville riot." 

Danville, a town in southeastern X'irginia. had in 1880 a pop- 
ulation of 7,526, of which 4.397 were colored and v^.l29 were 
white. By 1883 the percentage of negroes had become even 
larger. Yet in this town the whites paio in rouufl tnunbcrs 



*" The Richmond DisMch, October 26. ISS.'f. 



120 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

$40,000 in taxes and the negroes paid only $1,200, or $800 less 
than the amount appropriated out of the local taxes simply for 
the education of the colored children of the town. Prior to 
1882 Danville had no wards and the government of the town 
as a whole was in the hands of the whites. But in 1882 the 
Mahoneites had gotten their legislature to amend its charter so 
as to divide the town into three wards with four councilmen 
and one justice of the peace from each ward. The division 
was made in such a way as to secure for the negroes the power 
of electing seven out of the twelve members of the council, all 
the justices of the peace and four out of the nine policemen. 
One of the negro policemen served also as a health officer and 
another as weighmaster of the public scales and clerk of the 
market. Twenty out of the twenty-four stalls of the market 
were rented to negroes by the town council. And the market 
was in a most dilapidated and filthy condition. The chairman 
of the council, Colonel Raulston, carpetbagger internal revenue 
collector at Danville and a tool of General Mahone's, had 
openly avowed upon assuming his office as chairman that it was 
his aim to build up the Radical-negro party in that locality. 
The members of the town council were in his employ. The po- 
lice courts with their corrupt judges were a farce. The Fed- 
eral internal revenue office was also filled with negro employ- 
ees, or in the language of a former revenue officer of the town, 
"My office looks Africa because I have so many colored peo- 
ple in it." "^^ 

" The following extract from a speech of W. L. Fernald. Repub- 
lican (white) collector of internal revenue at Danville, which was 
delivered at Halifax Court House in behalf of Mahone's party, gives 
not only a picture of a Radical-Republican leader but also gives an 
example of the kind of speeches that were used to inflame the col- 
ored people by Mahone's followers: 

"It does those Funder overseers so much good to see a nigger's 
back whipped. Every time they see a nigger's back cut, they jump 
up and clap their heels together like game cocks. * * * You will 
see colored judges and lawyers in that courthouse, and you will 
have good schools if the Rcadjusters succeed. * * * When a 
colored man comes out against the Readjuster party, he has sold 
himself. A man who goes against his race and color is a damned 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 121 

For over a week before the election, business in Danville bad 
given place to politics. Incendiary speecbcs were made to tbe 
negroes by their leaders of both races, and two mass meetings 
were held by them just before the riot took place on November 
3. Whites were menaced by armed negroes, and white women 
were pushed from the sidewalk.^- Conditions were unbear- 
able. The riot, which occurred a few days before the election, 
followed an accidental discharge of a pistol during a dispute 
between a white man and two negroes. A crowd gathered but 
dispersed after several people had been killed.''' The governor 
sent militia to restore order, but before it could arrive the 
whites had the situation in hand. News of the riot and tbe 
conditions back of it spread rapidly over the State and united 
the whites against Mahone as nothing else could have done."*' 
Similar conditions had prevailed in other localities of tbe black 
belt and other riots were narrowly averted. 

The returns of the elections in November (1883) showed a 
complete victory for the forces opposed to Mahone. The newly 
elected Assembly contained a Democratic majority of about 
two-thirds in each house. And contested elections together 
with the resignation of several Readjusters soon brought the 
Democratic majority to over two-thirds in both houses of the 



scoundrel. * * * Some will say. what will become of the Repul)- 
lican party if we all go over to the Readjusters? There is nothing 
in a name except the smell. * ♦ * My office looks .\frica be- 
cause I have so many colored people in it." Quoted from the Rich- 
mond Dispatch by C. C. Pearson, The Rcadjtistcr Movement in i'ir- 
ginia, p. 155. 

" The Richmond Dispatch, October 2.!, Xovembor I. 1883. 

" The Richmond Dispatch, November 4. lSS;i. 

" W. L. Royall, Some Recollections. The New 'S'ork Tribune, the 
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette and other Republican papers accused 
the whites of the State of conspiring to massacre the colored peo- 
ple of Danville in order to intimidate them throughout the State be- 
fore the election. The Republicans even went so far as to have the 
afifair investigated by a committee of the United w tates Senate. The 
accusation was groundless. The Richmond Dispatch; John Goode, 
Recollectifltis. p. 119. 



122 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

legislature. There were only a few negroes elected, most of 
them from the Fourth Congressional District.'*^ 

The acts of the Assembly of 1883-1884 show the effects of 
the compromise between the Funder and Readjuster elements 
in the Democratic party. The debt question was declared to be 
settled. The liberal acts passed by the previous legislature con- 
cerning the suffrage, taxation, appropriations for public schools, 
and others of like nature were kept on the statute books ; and 
the liberal program in regard to the public institutions was en- 
larged. But those acts which were the products of Mahone- 
ism were changed and the whole political machinery, built up 
by Mahone, was at once attacked. One of the first resolutions 
introduced into the Senate on the first day of the session was 
one by Senator Newberry asking that Mahone resign from the 
United States Senate. It was charged that he had betrayed his 
party in order to get control of the Federal patronage in Vir- 
ginia; that he had absented himself from his duties in Wash- 
ington for about five months in order to control the legislature 



" The Fourth district was in the center of the black belt and was 
solidly Republican in representation on that account. The name of 
the counties of the district, their voting populations and colored 
representatives are as follows: 



County Delegate (Negro) White voters Negro voters 

Dinwiddie (including A. W. Harris 3,526 3,741 
the city Petersburg) A. Green (Petersburg) 

Brunswick l.-^96 1,924 

Mecklenburg A. A. Dobson 1,912 2,922 

Lunenburg 1,085 1,222 

Nottoway Archer Scott 759 1,471 

Amelia Archer Scott 785 1,425 

Greenesville 692 1,165 

Prince Edward N. M. Griggs 1,180 1,972 

Charlotte 1.398 2,055 

Powhatan "^07 1,007 

Cumberland Philip S. Boiling 756 1,426 



The above figures were taken from the Richmond Dishitcli, Octo- 
ber 30, 1883. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 123 

for his own selfish ends; that he had tried persistently to prej- 
udice the people of other states against those whom he repre- 
sented ; and that he iiad not ceased to "array class against class, 
and race against race, and to influence the passions and preju- 
dices of one against the other hy the most i)alpal)le misrepre- 
sentations and unparalleled vituperation." The resolution was 
passed in both houses of the Assembly.^*' The undoing of Ma- 
honeism by this legislature was complete. The Readjuster 
Governor's powers of appointment were greatly curtailed in 
such a way as to give the legislature the opportunity of depriv- 
ing Mahone's appoint'=^es of office. There was also further cen- 
tralization of the appointing power in the legislature. Thus a 
great many petty officers throughout the State, who had been 
active agents for Mahone, were removed. Provision was made 
for keeping local school officials from engaging in politics. Un- 
der Dr. Ruffner's administration these officials were required 
to keep out of political affairs. But the Readjusters, especially 
under Mahone's rule, had found them very useful as local 
agents for the party. The charters of the cities with large col- 
ored populations were amended so as to prevent negro-Radical 
domination in their affairs such as had existed in Danville after 
Mahone's party had changed its form of government. Con- 
gressional districts were reapportioned in favor of the Demo- 
cratic party ; but gerrymandering was not as obvious in this as ' 
in the former redistricting under Mahone's supervision. In- 
vestigations were made by the Assembly into every phase of 
the State government that had been affected by Mahoneism, 
and much incompetence, fraud and evil political practices were 
brought to light. The work of the legislature was thorough 
and drastic, but the evil which was undone and the superior 
character of the new local and State officials amply justified 
these measures. 

In April 1884. the Coalitionist (as the Mahone State conven- 
tion was called) State convention met under General Mahone's 
leadership, drew up a platform and instructed its delegates to 
the National Republican convention to support Anhur for pres- 



" House and Senate Journals. 1883-1884. 



124 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

ident, and adopted the name "Republican" officially for the 
first time. Mahone again posed as the black man's friend. He 
conducted his campaign with his usual vigor, but the Demo- 
crats carried the State for Cleveland and elected eight out of 
the ten Congressmen.-*" 

In the elections of 1885 there were to be chosen members of 
the General Assembly and the Governor. Mahone again made 
a desperate effort to win the State. As a compromise with 
those who inclined towards the straight-out Republicans, John 
S. Wise was nominated for governor by his party. The Demo- 
crats nominated General Fitzhugh Lee. The removal by Pres- 
ident Cleveland of Republican postmasters and revenue offi- 
cials, who had been very active in politics throughout the State, 
during the summer of 1885 further weakened Mahone's organ- 
ization. And the Democratic organization under the capable 
management of Mr. Barbour was rapidly increasing in effi- 
ciency. The campaign was a hard one on both sides. Na- 
tional interest was felt in it because of the notorious record of 
General Mahone in both state and national politics, and the 
knowledge ttiat his defeat meant the loss by the Republicans of 
two men in the United States Senate and of a state out of the 
solid Republican South. For the first time in about twenty 
years prominent Northern Republicans came to Virginia to 
speak in behalf of their party candidates. Most prominent of 
these were Forakcr and John Sherman. Although these men 
made "mild and soothing" speeches in Virginia, it was known 
that they had "wanted the bloody shirt" at home. Their pres- 
ence therefore aided the Democrats more than it hurt them.^s 



*' Eighty-five per cent of the total vote was cast in the election. 
The total Democratic vote for President in the State was 145.197; 
the total Republican vote, 139,356. 

*' While Sherman was speaking in Virginia, the following head- 
lines appeared in his own paper in Ohio, the Cincinnati Commercial 
Gazette: 

"Desperate Doings — Smacking of the Mtirderous Old Danville 
IMethods— Inaugurated as the Last Hope of Virginian Bourbons — 
Republican Meetings broken up at various places, while their lead- 
ers are Brutally Assaulted — Democracy's Scandalous treatment of 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA I'dl.ITIfS 125 

The Democrats were again victorious. Accusations of fraud 
were made by both parties and doubtless there was occasion for 
them, but the large vote cast by the Rcpublicrui |)arty. wiiich 
was composed largely of negroes, shows that there was no 
foundation to the Rciniblican report that there was widespread 
"bulldozing" by the Democrats in the election. ••" "The Demo- 
crats," said a telegram from Mahone on hearing the election 
returns, "have carried the State and legislative tickets by un- 
scrupulous use of election machinery, over which they have ab- 
solute control, and which was provided by their past usurping 
legislature with this end in view." The Richmond Dispatch in 
denying this accusation said. "What a characteristic etTort to 
poison the mind of the Northern jjublic. 'Unscru])ulous' for- 
sooth! Indeed does that word come with poor grace from the 
leader of a party that has floodecl the State with bogus bal- 
lots." ■"'" 

Although the negroes had voted without hindrance in this 
election, it was at this time that the [jeople of X'irginia resolved 
to eliminate them from politics regardless of any means short 
of violence. They were tired of the danger and friction which 
their presence in governmental affairs caused. 

The first phase of the Readjuster Movement gave momentum 
to the liberal movement already begun in X'irginia laws and in- 
stitutions. The second phase. Mahoneism, was more imj)ortant 



Sherman and Villitication of I'oraker." Quoted in Riclimond Dis- 
patch, November 3, 1885. See similar articles quoted from the \c\v 
York Efoiiug Post and the New York Tribune. On the other hand. 
the Washington Post took the following view of the situation: 

"There is but one issue to be decided tomorrow in the Common- 
wealth of Virginia and ^hat is designated most fitly by the word 
'Mahoneism.' Can Mahone, with 120.000 negroes at his back, rein-* 
force his failing columns with a sufficient number of white men to 
perpetrate for an indefinite number of years his rule as a Iretbootcr 
and a pirate over the people of his own state." 

The Xatiou shared the opinion of the Post as to Mahonc's charac- 
ter and purposes. 

'" The vote for Lee was 152, .■)44; and for Wise. 136.519. Note the 
Richmond Dispatch, November Ifi, 1885. 

^ The Richmond Dispatch, November 4. 1885. 



126 PHELPS-STOKES FELEOWSHIP PAPERS 

ill Virginia history from a political point of view. It left its 
traces on the political life of the Commonwealth for years to 
come. The methods introduced by Mahone to place himself in 
power were adopted by his opponents as the only means to de- 
feat him, and men's consciences became more or less accus- 
tomed to such political methods. The next fifteen years were 
marked by an increase of race friction and the increased use of 
loose political methods to defeat the negro vote. It was to rem- 
edy this unhealthy state of affairs, to leave neither cause nor 
excuse for fraud in politics, that changes were made from 
time to time in the fundamental laws of Virginia. 



c II A I'T i-:r I X. 

Politics and Race Friction — 1885 to 1900. 

In 1888 the deadlock which had existed between the Demo- 
cratic and Republican parties in national politics since 1876 was 
broken. In the elections of that year the Republicans won 
the presidency and a majority in both houses of Congress. In 
Virginia they elected two representatives and successfully con- 
tested the elections i.i the Third and Fourth Districts. There 
were three candidates in the Fourth District. * Ivlward C. \'en- 
able, Democrat; A. W. Arnold, Republican; and Joim W. 
Langston, independent Republican, nominated by a negro mass 
meeting. The returns of the election gave Venablo 1.^.298 
votes ; Langston, 12,657 votes ; and Arnold. 3,267. 

Langston was a Virginia mulatto, who had been cduc.itcd at 
the North, where he had lived until he came to Petersburg. \ir- 
ginia, as a teacher. He was un.scrupulous altiiough intelbgcnt 
and fluent. Shortly after his arrival in tiie State lie entered 
politics with the determination to defeat Mahone in his own 
district. For several months before the election he canvassed 
the district, bitterly denouncing Mahone and the whites of both 
political parties, and drawing the color line with the greatest 
severity. The colored leaders who were in the legislature or 
had been there remained true to their party and Mahone. They 
condemned Langston and the methods that he used to win the 
colored votes as tending to jiroduce friction between the rrces 
and to alienate the white Republicans and the other whites in 
the State, who were paying the greater part of the taxes to sup- 
port the colored schools and to support the regular functions 



' Tn this district were the counties of Amelia, Rrunswick. Dm- 
widdie. Greenesville. Lunenburg. Mecklenburg, yottoway. Powhatan. 
Prince Edward. Prince George, and Surry, and the city of Peters- 
burg. The White population in 1880 was 59,011. the colored popu- 
lation, 100.487. See note, page 122. 



127 



128 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

of government.- But they were insulted and persecuted by 
other members of their race who followed Langston. Langs- 
ton's chief appeal to the people was that there were enough ne- 
groes in the district to elect a negro to Congress and that it was 
time for them to have a representative there. By his oratory, 
he worked the ignorant and excitable negroes into a kind of 
frenzy. The whites were denounced and the fires of race ani- 
mosities were constantly stirred. The bitterness engendered by 
this campaign ^ and the revival of the race question in the na- 

" The United States Census of 1890 shows the following facts: 



White population in Virginia 1,015,123 

Colored population 640,857 

Total 1,655,980 



Value of property belonging to whites $351,919,071 

Value of property belonging to negroes 10,503,671 

Total $362,422,742 

Percentage of property held by whites 97.2 

Percentage of property held by negroes 2.8 

Value of property per capita of whites $346.67 

Value of property per capita of negroes 16.39 

^ The following is a part of the testimony of J. H. Van Auken, a 
Republican from the Fourth Congressional District of Virginia, be- 
fore the Committee on Elections of the House of Representatives: 

"Question. Then explain, if you please, how with Arnold, the reg- 
ular nominee of the party, supported by its entire organization in 
all its great influence, skill, management, and outlay, Arnold ran so 
poorly in the district? — Ans. For long months prior to the election, 
and for long months before the convention, Mr. Langston had, un- 
opposed, been making a canvass, in which he and his emissaries had 
insidiously and industriously played upon the passions and preju- 
dices of the colored people, basing his claims for Congress largely 
on the fact that the negroes outnumbered the whites very largely, 
and it was time for them to send a negro to Congress. He aroused 
even the women, got up an immense religious fervor in his favor 
and aroused the prejudice of the large mass of the unthinking col- 



THE NEGRO I.\ VIRiUXIA POLITICS 12'> 

tional elections of 1888 were doubtless larfjely rcspoiisiljlc fur 
the great increase of crime and lynching during the next few 
years. 

The elections in Virginia of 1889 marked the end of Ma- 
hone's political career. Having lost his seat in the United 
States Senate, he sought to become governor of the Common- 
wealth. The campaign for governor and for members of the 
legislature, which were to be chosen at the same time, was con- 
ducted with the usual vigor l)y the two opposing party leaders. 
Barbour and Mahone. Mahone's party was weakened by the 
revolt of John S. Wise, William K. Cameron and their friends, 
the most brilliant and worthy of his followers. This faction 
held a convention in October at which about two hundred del- 
egates were present. Resolutions were adopted containing fif- 
teen articles condemning Mahone's actions, and adding the res- 
olution, "That the defeat of William Mahone is essential to the 
salvation of the Republican party." Pressure was brought to 
bear on the colored voters from all sides. Xot a few votes 
were bought for a dollar or for tw(j dollars cacli l)y the Demo- 
crats. The usual mctliod of bribing them, however, was to buj 
their preachers or other leaders. The great mass of the ne- 
groes remained true to tlieir old leaders, who followed Ma- 
hone.^ The defection of the Wise-Cameron wing left Ma- 
hone's party, which had already been deserted in 188.^ by the 
best of the Readjusters, still less reputable, both at home and 
abroad. Philij) W. McKinney, the Democratic nominee, was 
elected governor by a majority of 42,000 votes out of a total 
of 283,000. In the legislature, the Democrats won the greatest 



ored people to such an extent as I never witnessed before and hope 
never to witness again. * * * 

"This feeling was intensified largely under the teachings and lead- 
ership of young colored men, who had no memories of the past. 
which enabled them to properly appreciate what the Republican 
party had done for their race, hence no feeling of gratitude." 

Report No. 2.462, House of Representatives. Fifty-First Congress, 
first session, pp. .I and 4. See other testimony . i the report. 

* F. G. Ruffin, Jl'liitc and Monsrcl. (pamphlet) Richmond, 1890. 
Evidence of contemporaries. 
—0 



130 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

majority that any conservative party had won in the State since 
the enfranchisement of the negroes.^ Only about twenty-four 
Republicans were left in the General Assembly. Among them 
were five negroes.*' 

The victory of the Republicans in the national elections of 
1888 resulted in their attempt to give tangible expression to the 
desire of regaining their former power which had been menaced 
for several years by the creation of the solid Democratic South 
at the expense of their colored allies. This desire found expres- 
sion in a bill introduced in 1890 by Representative Lodge of 
Massachusetts. This "force bill," as it was called, was de- 
signed to place Federal elections in the Southern States under 
the control of Federal officers and Federal troops. President 
Harrison had advised such a measure in his first message ,to 
Congress in December 1889. The bill passed the House, but 
died in the Senate. Around this bill there was centered a bit- 
ter debate in Congress and throughout the Nation, which 
served only to stir up past memories and to increase the soli- 
darity of the South against the aggressiveness of Northern Re- 
publicans." 

The conservative people of the North, however, who had 



^ The Richmond Times, November 29. 1887; the Richmond Dis- 
patch, November 10, 1889; the Richmond Times, November 27, 1889; 
the W arzvock-Richardson Almanac, 1890 and 1891. 

' There was one colored Senator, N. M. Griggs, of Prince Edward, 
who represented the counties of Amelia, Cumberland and Prince 
Edward. He was one of the members of that half of the Senate 
which was chosen in 1887. The other four negroes were delegates 
from Mecklenburg, Nottoway and Amelia, New Kent and Charles 
City, Elizabeth City, Warwick, and James City. 

' Hilary A. Herbert, editor. Some Noted Men of the Solid South, 
Why the Solid South. 

The attitude that was most resented by Southerners at this time 
was that expressed in a speech before the Paper Trade Association 
of Boston by William E. Barrett, speaker of the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives, in which he confidently asserted that the 
"Southern Question" would be solved through "the infusion into the 
South of New England men, capital and ideas." The Richmond 
Dispatch, March 22, 1890. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 131 

contrasted the ten years of bayonet-negro rule in the South 
with the decade of home rule there, were willing to let that 
section manage its own affairs.^ The many Northerners who 
had gone South to invesTth^ir money and to live were not slow 
in appreciating the situation from the Southern point of view. 
By voting for the Force Bill the Republican representatives 
from Virginia did not increase their popularity with the ma- 
jority of the people of the State, nor did their conduct aid their 
party in the State elections that followed.'-' 

The political contests in 1888, especially in the Fourth Con- 
gressional District, and the agitation over the Force Bill caused 
the speedy end of the Republican office-holders in Virginia, at 
least for a time. In 1890 Democratic representatives were 
elected in every district of the State. There was opposition in 
only four districts by regular Republican candidates. Inaction 
was advised by Republican leaders on the grounds that they 
were being cheated by the Democrats at the polls. In 1891 
there were only three Republicans in the General Assembly, 
and for the first time since 1867 there were no negroes in the 
State Senate. In 1893 the Republicans made no nomination 
for governor or for members of the legislature. Some of the 
Republicans supported independent candidates, and others, 
candidates of the People's party. 

The People's party, aided by the Southern Republicans, suc- 
ceeded in 1890 and in 1892 in dividing the whites in several of 
the Southern States, thereby capturing the legislature in South 
Carolina, Alabama. Missouri and Georgia ; in electing several 
Congressmen in the South — one of them colored ; and in elect- 
ing governors in Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.'** 



' E. L. Godkin. "The Republican Party and the Negro," in the 
Forum, March, 1889 (vii, 246 ff). For a conservative Soutliern view 
of the situation, see Wade Hampton, "What Negro Supremacy 
Means," Forum. June. 1888 (v, ;;83 ff). See also editorial in the Na- 
tion, July 3, 1890, p. 5, containing an extract from a speech by Ham- 
ilton G. Emart, Republican representative to C ngress from the 
Ninth District of North Carolina. 

' The Richmond Times, October 21, 1890. 

" James M. Callahan. "Political Parties in the South Since 1860," 
in The Soutli in the Building of the N^ation, iv, 640. 



132 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

But memories of the Force Bill and the danger of giving the 
negroes the balance of power through division of the whites 
held the South in line for Cleveland in the fall of 1892. 

The Virginia Populists had their first convention in 1892 
and in the election of that year gave their presidential candi- 
date 12,191 votes. In 1893 they elected thirteen members to 
the General Assembly. This movement received the support 
of the Republican element in the State and of the more illiter- 
ate Democrats. As a result of the fusion of the Republican 
and People's parties, the Republicans elected about thirty-six 
members to the General Assembly, and further strengthened 
that party in the Southwest. 

Y The success of the Democratic party in the national elections 
of 1892 placed both houses of Congress and the presidency in 
the hands of Southerners and their sympathisers, and demon- 
strated the futility of the bloody-shirt-negro-agitation methods 
of previous campaigns. In 1894 Congress repealed all the ex- 
isting statutes providing for Federal supervision of elections. 
Time and a more hopeful outlook in the South, and a better 
understanding of conditions by the North were bringing the 
sections of the country closer together. The war with Spain 
at this time had a nationalizing influence; and the problems of 
suffrage, confronting the Republican party in the insular pos- 
sessions, which were similar to those with which the South had 
been struggling, forced them to see the suffrage question from 
a new angle. Consequently the Southern States were left to 
.deal with the suffrage of the ignorant masses within their bor- 
ders without interference. 

" This new era in national life was reflected in the political af- 
fairs in Virginia. The State government and the bondholders 
had in the winter of 1891-1892 reached a settlement which was 
satisfactory to both sides. Mahoneism had been defeated. 
New interest was taken in national affairs, in education, eco- 
nomic development and social reforms. But the old elements 
of danger remained in politics and were prevented from show- 
ing themselves by the use of political methods which were evil 
in themselves and tolerated only because they prevented greater 
evils. The governor of the State frankly admitted in his mes- 



THE NEGRO IN VIRCIMA I'OI.ITICS 133 

sage of December 4, 1895, that prior to 1894 "iIktc had hi-cii 
much confusion and disorder at the voting i)hices, and lliat 
large sums of money had been used in every election to corrupt 
voters by all political parties, and men's ballots had been pur- 
chased like stocks in the market," and added "that this condi- 
tion of afifairs should cease in the interests of our institutions 
had long been apparent to every honest and right-thinking cit- 
izen," This state of afifairs caused grave concern to the people 
of Virginia, who had begun to realize that the wliolc bodv poli- 
tic was threatened with this infection. 

It was in order to secure decent and honest elections and to 
eliminate the most objectionable of the voters that there was 
enacted in March, 1894. the \\'a1ton Act, which introduced a 
modified form of the Anslralian l)allnt system, the main fea- 
tures of which exist today. Official ballots were retiuired. 
Booths placed forty feet from outside observers were to be 
provided to enable the voters to prepare their ballots secretly 
and without interference. Upon entering the booth, the voter 
must be given by one of the judges a ballot, which he was for- 
bidden to take outside of the polls. He was allowed two and 
a half minutes in which to prepare his ballot and could secure 
the aid of one of the judges of election in marking his ballot 
if "physically or educationally" unable to do it himself." 

This system of elections was a great improveniciU over the 
former one. In the words of the Governor, "The excitement, 
confusion and disorder, and the badgering, pulling and hauling 
of voters that prevailed to such a disgusting extent," under the 
old system were eliminated.^- Bribing was made much nore 
difficult, since there was no way for the voter, who had to be 
alone in the booth, to show his ballot after marking it. Bogus 
ballots, which liad ])laycd an important part in former elec- 
tions, could no longer be used. Manv illiterate voters were 



" The original act provided tor the appointmeiU of a special con- 
stable for this purpose. But the arrangement, w.ich was expensive 
and which lent itself easily to fraud, was not desired by the author 
of the law and was changed at the next session of the legislature. 

" Governor's Message, House Journal, 189.'>-180fi. p. .''.4. 



M 



\ 



134 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

practically disfranchised by the Walton law in spite of the fact 
that they could receive official assistance if necessary. Many 
negroes hesitated in getting a Democratic election judge to as- 
sist them in marking their ballots ; others were timid or 
ashamed to acknowledge their ignorance : and many that at- 
tempted to vote could not correctly mark their ballots in the al- 
lotted time. In some voting precincts, from a third to a half 
of the ballots had to be thrown out because they were incor- 
rectlv prepared. The governor of the State actually proposed 
,'■ in 1898 that emblems be used on the ballots to distinguish the 
/ candidates of the two parties in order to enable illiterate voters 
to vote as they desired. Fortunately, the General Assembly 
did not consider his proposition, f ^ 

Upon losing their votes through legal and illegal methods, 
and lacking aggressive leadership, the colored people grew apa- 
thetic, and many did not go to the polls in the elections of 1896 
and 1897. In 1896 the Democrats had their own way in all the 
black counties, and the white counties of the Southwest and the 
Valley, now relieved from the fear of negro domination in the 
eastern counties, became more independent in politics and gave 
more support to the Republican part}-. In 1897 a Democratic 
governor. Charles T. O'Ferrall. was elected. ^^ 

In spite of the fact that the white people of \'irginia had 
practically disfranchised the negroes by the middle of the nine- 
ties, they were greatly dissatisfied with political conditions as 
thev existed. The system of fraud that had been built up to 
defeat Mahoneism by disfranchising the negroes had a demor- 
alizing effect upon the whole electoral system and was finally 
used where whites alone were concerned. And the political 
unitA- of the whites, made necessan.- by the solidarity of the col- 
ored voters against them, prevented independent voting and 
therebv virtually disfranchised the whites in national and some- 
times even in state elections. These evils were forcibly brought 
before the people by the presidential election in 1896. There 
was in Mrginia a strong gold-standard faction in the Demo- 
cratic part}- which had the enthusiastic support of the Rich- 
mond Times, a paper that had been founded to support the 



The Richmond Dispatch, November 3. 1897. 



THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA POLITICS 135 

"Debt-payers" ■ in their fight against Readjusterism. In the 
Southwest and the V^alley, where the whites had a free hand 
and where there was less reason for prejudice against the Re- 
publican party, the Republicans either won or ran up large mi- 
norities. In the eastern counties, however, which had been the 
Republican stronghold in the State on account of the colored 
vote. Bn,an won with large majorities, thereby gaining the 
State by over nineteen thousand majorit}-.'^ The men who 
had opposed the regular Democratic organization were warmly 
assailed by former political associates for forsaking the party, 
and the "gold Democrats" felt that they did not get a square 
deal at the polls. After this there was an increased demand for 
the elimination of fraud in elections, and the causes back of it. 
by the revision of the suffrage article in the State Constitution. 
The Richmond Times led the way in this demand. This desire 
for cleaner and more independent politics resulted in the new 
Constitution of 1902. 

The changes made by this constitution in the suffrage can be 
rightly understood and appreciated only by a knowledge of the 
race conditions and relations — within and without the borders 
of the Commonwealth — that insured and hastened the calling of 
the Constitutional Convention of 1901. 

The histor\' of race relations in the South shows that most 
of the friction that has existed between the races since the War 
of Secession can be traced directly to political agitation. The 
unscrupulous leaders of the negroes endeavored to keep them 
united by vilifying the whites and by stirring up race preju- 
dices and passions. Their propaganda was more easily spread 
on account of the advent of the younger generation of negroes 
who were reared in the years of turmoil during and after Re- 
construction and who lacked both the friendship of the whites 
and the training and discipline that were given them before the 
War of Secession. The percentage of older freedmen on the 
prison records was comparatively low. The records of the 
Mrginia penitentiar}- for the years 1871 to 1888 inclusive show 
that an average of 67 whites and 247 negroes were received 



W. L. Rovall. Sott'.e Reminiscences, ch. v. 



136 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

into that institution yearly. With the census figures of 1880 as 
a basis, it is seen that the percentage of negroes received yearly 
into the penitentiary was seven times as great as that of the 
whites. ^^ Even after making allowance for possible discrimi- 
nation against the negroes by the courts, the contrast is very 
striking. However, such statistics do not show that the more 
unfortunate race was proportionally inferior, because crime is 
the ally of poverty and ignorance the world over. But such 
statistics were naturally used in those days against the negro 
as such. 

The general lawlessness that followed war, the lack of any 
system of police in the rural districts, which contained most 
of the population of the State, and the inadequacy and ineffi- 
ciency of the State and local governments compelled the people 
to take the law into their own hands to a great extent. Under 
these conditions, mob violence could not be readily checked. 
In those days, lynchings for the crime of rape which is the 
most unspeakably hideous of all crimes to a Southerner, espe- 
cially when the offender is of another race, was deemed the 
only quick and certain method of punishment and a wholesome 
lesson to would-be offenders. It was considered necessary for 
the protection of women scattered on lonely plantations through- 
out the country. 1^' 

Records show that lynchings were the result of the nature of 
the crime rather than of mere race prejudice, as was generally 
believed outside of the State. But there was only a short step 
between lynchings for rape and lynchings for murder — and for 
even lesser crimes. From 1880 to 1888 inclusive, there were 
eight white and eighteen colored people lynched, or an average 
of one white to two colored victims a year in Virginia. Of 
these twenty-six, nine were accused of rape or attempted rape 
and twelve of murder. 

In the decade of the nineties, contemporary evidence of all 
kinds shows that the number of rapings liy negro men were 



" Frank C Ruffin, Cost and Outcome of Negro Education in Vir- 
ginia. Table prepared by W. W. Moses, superintendent of the Vir- 
ginia penitentiary, 1871 to 1888 inclusive. 

" Governor McKinney's Message, House Journal, 1803-1894. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 137 

increasing at an alarming rate. This marked increase 
began to be evident about the end of the year 18<S8. The in- 
crease was without doubt due to the excitement arising out 
of the State and national elections of 1888 and 1S89. There 
occurred in 1888 the election to Congress of John M. Langston, 
an illegitimate mulatto, who openly advocated the mingling of 
the races and other things repugnant to the whites. The char- 
acter of the campaign which he conducted has been described 
above. It did much to increase the strained relations already 
existing between the two races. Then in 1889 came another 
election, in wliich negroes were led in masses to the polls to 
aid Mahone. who met his last great defeat in that campaigti. 
There were the usual strained race relations that followed such 
campaigns. 

After 1888 the number of cases of rape was increasing at an 
alarming rate throughout the South. i" Virginia afforded no 

" Note contemporary newspapers, periodicals of all kinds, con- 
temporary memoirs, etc. As an example, see the following articles 
in one volume of the Forum, vol. xvi (September. 189.T-Kebruary, 
1894): .Atticus G. Haygood. "The Black Shadow in the South;" 
Charles H. Smith, "Have American Negroes Too Much Liberty?" 
L. E. Beckley. "Xegro Outrage Xo Excuse for Lynching;" Walter 
Hines Page. "The Last Hold of the Southern Bully." 

Bishop Atticus G. Haygood. of whom James Bryce says, the ne- 
gro has no better friend, quotes in his article, named above. Dr E. 
E. Hoss. editor of the Christian Advocate (the chief organ of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church South) as saying that "three hundred 
white women had been raped by negroes within the preceding three 
months." "I believe," added Bishop Haygood, "Dr. Hoss's state- 
ment to be under rather than above the facts in the case. Not a 
few such crimes are never published." Bishop Haygood remembered 
only one such crime that occurred before the War of Secession. He 
said that Reconstruction has taught the negro his rights, not his 
responsibilities; license rather than liberty. The younger negroes 
were taught that it was their business to keep the white Southern 
man down and to hate him. rather than to be guided by him. A 
certain class of Northern newspapers dilated on the horrors of lynch- 
ing and reported all violations done negroes whiie barely comment- 
ing on the nature of the crime or the horrors of rape. Public rec- 
ords show that the negro criminals were for the most part those 
who grew up under the loose regime of Reconstruction. 



138 



PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 



exception to the rule. The most brutal as well as the most fre- 
quent criminals in these cases were negroes. Where whites 
were guilty of such brutality as was shown by these men, they 
met with the same punishment. During the five years that fol- 
lowed 1888 (1889 to 1893 inclusive) there were thirty-five 
lynchings in the State. The victims in all but five cases were 
colored. The crime charged against fifteen of these was rape 
or attempted rape and that against fourteen was murder.^** 



LIST OF LYNCHINGS IN VIRGINIA FROM 1880 TO 1897 INCLUSIVE. 



1880 
1881 
188a 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
18'.K5 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 

Total 



13 



51 



< 



15 11 27 



SS 



.2 o 
*^ o 



^ s 






w 0, *- 



3 ^ 



O 



O 2. 






1 3 



o bo 



This table is found in Senate Journal, 1897-1898, p. 16. (Also in 
House Journal of that year) Governor O'Ferrall says of it, "This ta- 



tn 



t-l O 4 



3 
3 

4 
3 
3 
3 
3 
1 
3 
7 
1 
6 
9 
12 


1 



64 



THE NEGRO IX VIRGINIA Pfd.ITICS 139 

Twelve negroes were lynched in 1893. On September 20 of 
that year a climax was reached in mob violence with a riot that 
occurred in Roanoke, a peaceful and thriving town outside of 
the black belt. A negro man assaulted an old lady in a lonely 
house, robbed her and beat her almost beyond recognition. She 
revived and informed the authorities, who found the criminal 
and lodged him in jail. Upon hearing of the crime, a mob 
gathered and demanded the negro. The mayor of the town or- 
dered the mob to disperse and linally called out the militia. 
But the crowd attacked the jail and militia in sjjite of the en- 
treaties of the mayor and the warning from the commanding 
ofificer of the militia that they would fire if necessary. Finally 
the mob succeeded in overpowering the militia, and succeeded 
in hnching the negro. They also drove the mayor from the 
town for a time. Eighteen people were killed and twenty- 
seven wounded in the riot.^^ 

This affair emphasized the dangers and the disgrace of mob 
rule and aided in crystallizing public sentiment against such 
occurrences. In his message to the legislature of December 6, 
1893, Governor McKinney gave an account of the riot and bit- 
terly condemned the lynching. He said that the government of 
the State was now firmly established and in the hands of the 
people of Virginia, and that an excuse for mob rule no longer 
existed. "The law in the State of Virginia," he said, "will be 
enforced . The military when ordered out will 

carry loaded rifles, and will use them when ordered to do so by 
the officers in command, and the consequences must rest upon 
the heads of those who make it necessary." 

The State was fortunate in the election as governor, in the 
fall of 1893, of Charles T. O'Ferrall, who also vigorously op- 
posed mob violence and who promised in his inaugural address 
to rigidly enforce the law and to prevent lynchings to the best 
of his ability. He was fearless in his elTort to redeem his 

ble is authentic and is prepared from the repo ts of tlic clerks of 
courts of the various counties and cities from 1880 to 1894. and from 
direct information in the executive office since." 

" Senate Journal, 189:!-! 894, Governor's Message, pp. I.I-SO. 



140 PHELPS-STOKFS FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

promise. No lynchings occurred during the first two years of 
his administration, 1894 and 1895. The militia was employed, 
however, in several counties to prevent mob violence. 2** In 1896 
only one lynching occurred in the State; and in 1897 one white 
man and one negro were lynched. Governor Tyler was able to 
make a similar report during the next administration. During 
1898 and 1899 there occurred two or three lynchings, "which," 
according to the Governor, "could not have been prevented 
though the local officers did all in their power." For the next 
two years of his administration, he said. "The order of our 
State has been good, and it is a gratifying fact that the preva- 
lence of that menace to civilization — mob law — has been no- 
tably less. With the exception of one or two counties the peo- 
ple of the State have been law-abiding and peaceful." -^ Dur- 
ing the next seventeen years Virginia was free from lynchings, 
and the attempted lynchings were much fewer. -- The provo- 
cations for lynchings had not ceased in the later nineties, how- 
ever, and continued to strengthen the demand for the removal 
of the negroes from politics. -•"* 



'" The militia was used in the following counties for this reason 
during those two years: Prince William, Augusta, Frederick, Clarke, 
Lunenburg and Albemarle. {House Journal, 1897-1898, p. 21). Dur- 
ing the last two years of the administration, 1896 and 1897, the mi- 
litia was called out to aid the civil authorities by the mayors of Al- 
exandria, and Portsmouth, and by the sheriffs of Albemarle, Shenan- 
doah, Fairfax, and Culpeper counties. 

" House Journal, 1899-1900, p. :!7; ibid., 1901-1902, p. ;}-t. 

" For a thoughtful and interesting discussion of this subject, see 
Thomas Walker Page, "Lynching and Race Relations in the South," 
North American Rez'iezv, August, 1917. 

^ During four years, ending December, 1897, there were committed 
to the penitentiary, for various terms, fifty-eight criminals for at- 
tempted rape and twenty-nine for rape. Of these eighty-seven, 
twenty-four were white and sixtj^-tliree were colored. In addition 
to these cases, there were eight men hanged for the crime. Ifoiisc 
Journal, 1897-1898. 

According to Governor O'Ferrall's report in December, 1897, "The 
rapidity with which the number of criminal assaults has grown in 
the Southern States, and in fact in the country at large recently, 



THE NEGRO IN VI KOI. MA I'ULITICS 141 

As an outcome of the friction between tlie races, an act was 
passed by the Virginia legislature recjuiring railroad companies 
to provide separate coaches for white and colored passengers.-' 
This legislation, Hke most legislation of its kind, rcsuhed from 
a demand for it extending over a number of years -' because 
of numerous instances of strife between members of the two 
races when tlirown together on cars. These instances became 
more numerous and the proverbial straw which brought mat- 
ters to a climax came early in January. 1900. It was a rela- 
tively small affair and would not have attracted state- wide at- 
tention had it not been one of several such hapiienings tliat had 
occurred within a fe\v weeks of each other. A half drunken 
negro made himself very disagreeable to a while woman by 
whom he was sitting in a car. When asked to take another 
seat, he refused and was ejected by a white man. There were 
other drunken negroes on the car with guns, and a tight, which 
would have proven a serious affair, was narrowly averted.'-" 
This event was the occasion of mucli discussion of race rela- 
tions throughout the commonwealth, wliich resulted in the en- 
actment of the law, on May 12. 1900. which prevented the re- 
currence of such troubles. 

The political situation as regarding the negroes in X'irginia 
was strongly influenced by the pohtical and race relations that 
existed in other Southern States at this time, especially by 
those existing in the adjoining State of North Carolina. It will 
not be a digression from the subject under discussion to pause 
here to note briefly the situation in that Stale during the nine- 
ties. 



should stimulate the legislature of every State to take the most vig- 
orous steps to stamp out the horrible crime." 

Professor R. H. Dabuey of the University of Virginia, wrote in 
1901, "Race hatred has not yet been violent except in wreaking ven- 
geance for the crime of rape. But the steadily growing frequency of 
this crime is fearfully increasing the bitterness." .Article in the Rich- 
mond Times, October 6. 1901. 

'^ Most of the other Southern States had air ady passed similar 
laws. G. T. Stephenson. Race Distinctions iu Avicncaii Law. 

" Governor's Message. House Journal, 1891-1892. 

*■ The Richmond Times, January 12, 1900. 



142 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

According to the census of 1890 there were 1,055, 382 whites 
and 561,018 negroes in that State, the percentage of negroes in 
the total being, therefore, 34.7.^" In fifteen counties the ne- 
groes were in the majority. But the whites, who controlled the 
State government, had made laws which enabled them to con- 
trol the government in these counties during the twenty-three 
years prior to 1894. In 1894, Republicans, Populists and negroes 
fused and gained partial control of the State and local offices. 
Two years later they got complete control of these offices. A 
Republican governor was elected, and the legislature was under 
the control of the fusionists. The legislature immediately decen- 
tralized the State government in such a way as to make the ne- 
groes supreme in those counties and towns where they were in 
the majority. The offices were filled with incapable whites and 
negroes. Two years of riot and corruption, like those which 
prevailed in the days of Reconstruction, followed.^"^^ Condi- 
tions became intolerable. Neither the property nor the persons 
of the whites of the black belt were safe. Crime increased and 
went unpunished. The negroes who had been peaceful under 
the former government had their heads completely turned by 
the sight of their fellows in office and by the speeches of their 
leaders. They became unbearably insolent. 

In Wilmington, where three-fifths of the population was col- 
ored, white women were even slapped in the face or pushed 
from the sidewalk without provocation by negro women. 
When the whites began to arm and to make plans to defend 
themselves from insult and injury, there was talk among the 
negroes of poisoning the whites and of burning their homes at 



" Tfiese figures closely resemble those for Virginia at that time. 

"'a One thousand negroes became office holders in the State. There 
were three hundred negro magistrates and twenty-seven negro post- 
masters. The collector at the port of Wilmington was colored. The 
offices in the eastern counties were almost all filled with negroes and 
their white leaders. Thus the counties in a large part of the State 
were ruled by the mass of ignorant and shiftless negroes and the 
unscrupulous whites, who paid only a negligible per cent of the 
taxes and who were most inefficient and corrupt in administering the 
affairs of government. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITRS 143 

night. In November the white men organized to insure order 
on election day. (^n tlie day after election they destroyed the 
press of a negro newspaper that liad published an article which 
not only insulted white women but also tended to encourage 
the crime of rape, a brutal instance of which had just been 
committed by a negro in an adjoining county. No other prop- 
erty was destroyed by the whites and no physical harm was 
done anyone. About a mile from the scene of this occurrence, 
however, a negro mob fired at a group of white men on the 
street, injuring one seriously. A fight ensued. There were 
two or three other affrays during the day, and by night thou- 
sands of negroes were hiding in the swamps. During this riot, 
seven negroes were killed and thirteen wounded. There was 
no wanton killing or vandalism. Three whites were woimded. 
In the midst of the tumult, the incapal)le town authorities re- 
signed and the leaders of the whites were jnit in charge of 
town affairs. The new officials issued an order at once that 
business be resumed as usual on the following day. and that all 
appear at their tasks without firearms. The order was obeyed. 
Peace was restored. Parties were organized to go in search of 
the fugitive negroes and to assure them that they could safely 
return to their homes, and vigilance committees saw to it that 
those who had not fled were not molested in their work. The 
whites had accomplished their purpose. They were in control 
of the town and had given the negroes a warning that in.solence 
and lawlessness must cease. 

In 1896 the white Democrats effected a revolution in North 
Carolina, and came once more into control of the legislature. 
In 1900, Charles B. Aycock, in o]:)ening his successful cam- 
paign for governor, made the statement that the State consti- 
tution must be amended to disfranchise the negro, and that or- 
der and development demanded that the existing system of 
government be changed.-*' North Carolina passed her lav for 

'* For an account of the "revolution" in North CaroHna and of 
the race troubles in Wihnington in particular, see the following ar- 
ticles, which are vahiable in giving unbiased views of this and sim- 
ilar race troubles and their causes: 

"The Race Problem in the South — I. The North CaroHna Rev- 



144 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

separate coaches for the races in 1899 and made a new consti- 
tution, which disfranchised most of the negroes in 1900. 

The revolution in North Carolina was watched with interest 
and sympathy by Virginians, who had similar elements of dan- 
ger to guard against. The situation which had necessitated it 
was similar to what had existed in Virginia and which might 
occur again. 

Of the many methods used to win the votes or the neutrality 
of the negroes during the eighties and especially during the 
nineties, bribery was the one most generally resorted to. The 
usual sum for an individual vote was one or two dollars. The 
most usual way of bribing was to pay negro preachers -^ or 



olution," by A. J. McKelwey, editor of the North Carolina Presbyterian, 
II. "A Negro's View," by Kelly Miller, of Howard University, in 
the Outlook: Henry Litchfield West, "Race War in North Carolina," 
the Fonim, xxvi, 574 ff. (January, 1899). Alfred M. Waddell, article 
in Proceedings of the Montgomery Conference on Race Problems i)t the 
South, 1900; and the Richmond Times, August 1, 1900. 

" Contemporary evidence; Philip Alexander Bruce, The Plantation 
Negro as a Freedman. 

With not a few worthy exceptions, the negro preacliers in the 
South, especially in the rural districts, were chosen not on account 
of any very superior moral fitness, but because of their fluency and 
aggressive personality. Thej^ were therefore the natural leaders 
of their race. The church was at that time a kind of political or- 
ganization. Those of its members who voted with the whites against 
the will of the preachers were ostracized and were sometimes turned 
out of the church. These preachers appealed to the emotions rather 
than to the head, and they kept the negro voters under their control. 

An interesting example of the influence of these inen in politics 
is furnished by the election in Richmond in 1875. There were to be 
elected two State senators from Richmond. General Bradley T. 
Johnson and William E. Tanner were the Democratic nominees. 
The Republicans had no regular nominees; but two independent 
candidates, Knight and Starke entered the field with the expectation 
of being elected by aid of the negro vote. Johnson, "at very con- 
siderable expense," had organized Johnson clubs among the negroes 
and had a large number of colored voters pledged to him. There 
were eighty-five pledged to him in one precinct. Up to the Sunday 
preceding the election (which took place the next day) Johnson had 
no opposition among the negroes. On Sunday night, however, when 
all the negroes attended church, their preachers announced from 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 14S 

Others of influence among the colored people fifteen, twenty ' 
and -sometimes fifty dollars or more for their influence in a 
certain district, or for a certain number of votes. As a traveler 
in the South expressed it, "The negro vote, like the cotton 
crop, is always on the market, to be sold to the highest bidder. 
The negro is for sale today as much as ever." •'"' 

Other methods were used to defeat the colored vote. I'.alloi 
boxes were stuffed with tissue ballots and otlitTwise tam])ered 
with. In some counties the negroes' love of running for ofllce 
proved their undoing. Several colored candidates for office 
w^ould appear in the field. The whites would studiously avoid 
the appearance of uniting on one candidate, and at the same 
time agree among themselves to vote in a body for only one 
man. In some instances the whites went so far as to put for- 
ward colored candidates to divide the negro vote. Intimida- 
tion was seldom resorted to. In Charlotte county a colored 
candidate for the legislature was shot by a white man in his 
audience. The victim, a mulatto shoemaker named Joseph R. 
Holmes, had represented Charlotte and Halifax counties in the 
Underwood Convention. Needless to say there were no more 
negro candidates for office in Charlotte county. However, this 
was a very extreme example of intimidation. 

The Walton law of 1894 prevented much confusion at the 
polls, but it was not sufficiently effective in weeding out objec- 
tionable votes and in preventing fraud. -"^^ It was generally ad- 
mitted in 1900 by men of all parties in the State that the ne- 
groes were being defrauded at the polls and that those who had 
charge of the party machinery in local elections often treated 



their pulpits throughout the citj' that all were expected to vote for 
Knight and Starke. Tanner and Johnson were elected but did not 
receive a single negro vote. W. L. Royall, State Debt Controversy, 
pp. 37-39; Senate Journal and Documents, 1875-1876. 

'" Henry M. Field. D. D.. Bright Skies and Dark Sliadozcs. 

" The Richmond Times. January 4. 1808; Address of J. Itoge Ty- 
ler to the legislature. House Journal, 18'.)0-1000. p. :?2; John Garland 
Pollard, ''Unrestricted Suffrage and its Corrupting Influences." the 
Richmond Times, July 15, 1900; Numerous references in the news- 
papers and other contemporaneous sources of 1900 and 1901. 

—10 



146 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

the whites who differed with them in the same fashion. Men 
of the yonger generation were losing their respect for the sanc- 
tity of the ballot and for politics in general.^- The need for an 
amended constitution to remedy this state of affairs was very 
urgent. 



*" A delegate from the Southwest made the following statement 
on the floor of the Constitutional Convention of 1901 without having 
its truthfulness challenged: "I do not deny, and I am ready to show, 
if it were necessary, that they [elections] have not been fair in the 
black belt, but it is of no use to show that, because it is admitted all 
over this floor by every member on it." Debates of the Constitutional 
Convention of 1901, p. 211; Other contemporary sources. 




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C n A P T K R X. 

The Constitutional Convention of 1901-1902 and the 
New Constitution. 

The question of calling a convention to revise and amend the 
Constitution of 1868 was suhniitted to tiie j)eople three times 
prior to 1900.^ The Constitution of 1868 provided that no 
such election be held in the State until after the general elec- 
tion to be held in 1888, and that a vote be then taken on the 
question. But the danger of a return to Mahoneism was too 
great at that time for the whites to advocate any measure re- 
stricting the suffrage or reducing the number of local offices. 
Furthermore, it was not felt that the State could afford to bear 
the expenses of a convention at that time. Economy had been 
written into all political platforms for many years. A conven- 
tion was advocated, therefore, by neither party. The first ref- 
erendum for a convention was defeated by a vote of 63,125 to 
3,698. By 1897 public sentiment in its favor had greatly in- 
creased. In the election of that year the convention was again 
defeated — this time by a vote of ^3.453 to 38,326. Rut no 
definite program could be agreed U])on as a basis for revising 
the constitution. As in the previous election, no party was 
committeed on the subject and no canvass was made. In 1900 
the General Assembly again provided for a vote on the calling 
of a convention. 2 Both parties now took sides on the (juestion. 
The Democratic State convention at its meeting in Norfolk >»n 
May 2, 1900, advocated the calling of a convention to revise 
the Underwood Constitution. It also passed a resolution 
"That it is the sense of this convention that in framing a new 
constitution, no effort should bo made to disfranchise an\ citi- 



* Numerous amendments had. liowcvcr, change ' the original con- 
stitution in a great many different places. For a convenient list of 
these amendments, see J. X. Brennaman. ./ History of lirginia Con- 
ventions, p. 122. 

' Act of March 5, 1900. 

147 



148 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

zen of Virginia who had a right to vote prior to 1861, nor the 
descendant of any such person, and that when such constitu- 
tion shall have been framed it shall be submitted to a vote of 
the people for ratification or rejection." ^ The Republican 
party declared emphatic opposition to a constitutional conven- 
tion. "Let every voter," urged the chairman of the party, "get 
to the polls on the 24th of May 1900, and snow the attempted 
outrage under." ^ In this election 77,362 votes were cast for 
a convention, and 60,375 against it.-'* 

The returns of the election show some odd results. Of the 
100 counties, 48 were for and 52 against a convention. Of the 
35 counties in which there was a majority of negroes, 18 voted 
for a convention and 17 against it. Of the 65 white counties, 
30 voted for and 35 against a convention — 25 of the latter be- 
ing west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The 32 counties west 
of the Blue Ridge contained a population of 454,209 whites and 
58,599 negroes, or a majority of over 400,000 whites. Yet all 
but 7 of these counties voted against the calling of a constitu- 
tional convention/ In the 30 white counties that voted in favor 
of a conventiori there were 375,039 whites and 184,139 ne- 
groes, or a ma/ority of 190,900 whites ; and in the 35 white 
counties that opposed the convention, the whites numbered 
416,848, and the negroes only 83,174, or a white majority of 
333,674. In the 35 black counties which had a majority of 
16,491 male negroes of voting age the majority against a con- 
vention was only 422.^ These figures show that the election 



^ The Richmond Times, May 3, 1900. 

* I hid.. May 11, 1900. 

° The total possible vote in the State was about 447,000. 

° Charlotte county had 1,847 more colored than white inhabitants. 
Its majority for the convention was 476. Prince Edward county with 
its majority of 4,493 negroes had a majority of 64 for the conven- 
tion. Many had been eliminated, doubtless, by the usual methods. 
But the small negro vote may be accounted for in most cases by 
the fact that the negroes had ceased to vote and did not have their 
former leaders to bring them to the polls. Nevertheless not a few 
colored votes were cast. Debates of the Constitutional Coni'ention of 
igoi, p. 3,000. 



THE NEGRO IX VIKCIXIA POLITICS 149 

was won in those counties having,' tlio largest negro population, 
although it was a foregone conclusion that the negro would he 
disfranchised if a convention were called. 

Two questions naturally arise from the consideration of 
these facts : Why did the white counties oppose the calling of 
a convention ? and why did not the blacker counties oppose it ? 

The answer to the first question is found in the social and 
economic differences of the two sections. As long as the Kast 
was swamped in negro-carpetbag rule under RefHiblican lead- 
ership the West was solidly Conservative, or Democratic. 
When the East became solidly Democratic the West became 
largely Republican. This change in the political affiliation of 
the Southwest was due in part to the old sectional spirit that 
made the opposition of the West to the East in politics tradi- 
tional in Virginia. The influence of Mahoneism and Populism, 
the freedom from the menacing presence of the negro in local 
politics, and the growth of large mining interests in thr West 
and Southwest, all united in turning these sections toward^ the 
Republican party. 

Mahoneism had made a strong appeal to the vast numbers of 
illiterate whites in the western counties. Mahoneism paved 
the way for Populism ; and Populism paved the way for the 
Republican party, which was associated with both the Mahone 
and the People's party in X'irginia. The Republican party was 
still the colored man's party in the State. And, furthennore, 
in the white counties little was to be gained in local politics by 
the elimination of the negro vote, and in State politics there 
was little for the West to be anxious about so long as the 
whites in the eastern counties were in control of the political 
machinery. Perhaps the greatest cause of the opposition in 
the Southwest to the calling of a convention was the fear that 
the illiterate whites of that section would be excluded along 
with the illiterate negroes in the eastern counties. In the 
Ninth Congressional District, which lies wholly west of the 
Blue Ridge Mountains, there were more tl an nine times as 
many white as negro voters. Yet there was 1 voter out of ev- 
ery 4.2 in the district who could not read and write. The per- 



150 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

centage of illiteracy was greater among the white than among 
the colored voters of the district, the ratio of illiterate to liter- 
ate white voters being 1 to 4.6, and that of the colored 1 to 21. 
In the Fourth District, on the other hand, which remained 
longest under negro domination and which was one of the most 
aggressive sections in bringing about the disfranchisement of 
the negroes, there was one-sixth less white than colored voters. 
In this district the ratio of white illiterate to literate voters was 
1 to 10.8, and the ratio among the negro voters was 1 to 1.6. 
The proportion of white voters in the Ninth District who could 
not read and write was more than twice as great as that in the 
Fourth District; and the proportion of negro voters in the 
former district who could read and write was thirty-three per 
cent larger than that in the Fourth District." 

It is obvious from these figures that the problems facing the 
sections represented by these two districts were very different. 
The western counties had little reason for desiring to disfran- 
chise their small negro minority or to endanger the suffrage of 
their illiterate whites who were of the same race and political 
faith as the literates. In the black counties there were no such 
bonds between the mass of literates and illiterates. 

In the black counties the burden of taxation fell upon the 
white minority and the whites desired control of expenditures. 
The total amount of taxes paid by the negroes of the State for 
the fiscal year ending September 30, 1902. if used solely to 
cover the amount appropriated for colored schools, would 
cover less than half of the expenditure for their schools alone 
— exclusive of the pay of county and city superintendents and 
the expenses of the State Department of Education.^ Al- 



' Debates of the Constitutional Convention of 1901, p. 3,000; Journal 
and Documents of the Convention of 1901. For map showing bound- 
aries of the districts, see opposite page. 

' The following tables, from the Report of the Auditor for the 
fiscal year ending September 30, 1902, show the economic differences 
that existed between the two races in Virginia at this time. The 




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THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 151 

though iio httle progress had been made in bettering their con- 
dition, the majority of them still remained ignorant and were 
a constant social danger.'' 

The Constitutional Convention of 1901-1902 began its ses- 
sion on June 12. Of the one hundred delegates eighty-eiglit 
were Democrats and twelve, Republicans. There were men of 
all shades of political beliefs represented. The j)ersonnel of 
the Convention was much above that of the average legislative 
body of the State. John (joode. who had served in the Seces- 
sion Convention of 1861 and in the Confederate Congress, was 
elected chairman. 

In the campaign preceding the convention and in the con- 
vention itself no attempt was made to conceal the main pur- 
white population was l,19~'.8r)8 and the colored population was 
661,326, or 32. G of the total population. 



Total Value of Personal Property 

Owned by Whites Negroes Total 

$108,660,967 $ 4,2<tS.501 $112,959,468 
Total Value of Land, Town Lots 

and Buildings 316,633.102 13.281,889 329.914.991 

Taxes Paid 

On Personal Property By Whites By Negroes Total 

For the Government $ 326,174.16 $20,556.33 $ 346.730.49 

For Schools 101.119.29 4.281.04 105.400.17 

Total $ 427.293.29 $24,837.37 $ 4.-)2. 130.66 

On Real Estate: 

For the Government $ 942,718.99 $.39,818.79 $ 982. '37.73 

For Schools 314.453.34 13.293.84 327.747.13 

Total $1,257,172.33 $ 53.112.63 $1,310,284.96 

On Income $ 64.190.15 $ 3.3.00 $ 64.223.15 

Capitations 264.690.00 125.53.3.00 390.223.00 

Total Taxes $2,013,345.77 $203,516.00 $2,216,861.77 



• W. E. B. DuBois. The Negroes of FarmviUc, Virginia: Contempo- 
rary evidence of various kinds. 



152 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

pose of that body. The negro had been a failure and a menace 
in politics. As long as he was in politics the color line was a 
line of friction and danger to both races. Therefore he must 
be removed, not only because he was for the most part an ig- 
norant and irresponsible voter who had usually stood solidly 
behind the worst elements in State politics, but also because he 
had been taught in the beginning to vote as a negro and must 
therefore be disfranchised because he was a negro.^*^ There 
was no animosity displayed against the negroes in the speeches 
of the convention. His political sins were laid at the feet of 
his teachers ; and his shiftlessness and moral short-comings 
were regarded as inherent to his race or as the result of his en- 
vironment. 

The task before the convention was a most difficult one. 
There were some delegates from the blackest counties, which 
had suffered most from the negro franchise, who desired a 
wholesale disfranchisement of the negroes in the most arbi- 
trary manner, and those who desired to eliminate the ignorant 
and vicious voters regardless of color ; there were delegates 
from the Republican counties of the Southwest which had suf- 
fered only indirectly from the colored vote, who spoke of the 
"God—given right of suffrage" with all the fervor of the Radi- 
cal Republicans of the Convention of 1867 ; and there were 
delegates from the middle counties, and not a few from coun- 
ties of all sections, who were determined to accomplish the 
purpose of the convention without resorting to methods that 
would be unnecessarily radical. These last men formed the 
majority element in the convention. 

"The Committee on the Elective Franchise, Qualification for 
Office, Basis of Representation and Apportionment, and on 
Elections" was composed of twenty-two members, at least two 
of whom were chosen from each of the Congressional districts 
of the State. After more than three months of hard work this 
committee submitted to the convention on September 26, 1901 

'" Tt should be remembered in this connection that the first "Solid 
South" was black and Republican. There was no "Solid South" be- 
fore the days of Reconstruction. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POUTICS 153 

three reports on the elective franchise — the majoritv rcjjort 
signed by twelve of the committee headed by Mr. 'riiom. of 
Norfolk, a minority report signed by six of tlie committee 
headed by Senator John W. Daniel, of Campliell county, and a 
second minority report submitted by one member. Mr. I C. 
Wysor, of Pulaski and Giles counties.*^ 

The requisites for the franchise proposed in the Thom plan 
were as follows: 1. The prepayment of the capitation tax of 
$1.50 six months before the election, api)lica1)le after February 
1, 1903; 2. residence in the State two years, in the county one 
year and in tlie i)recir.ct thirty days ; 3. the registration of tlie 
voter as prescribed by law ; 4. ability to explain the general 
nature of the various officers for whom the applicant may at 
that time under the laws l)e entitled lo vote; 5. that he should 
have been engaged, if physically able, for at least one- fourth 
of the time during the year next preceding that in which he of- 
fers to vote, in a lawful trade, profession, business, calling, 
work or service. In addition, further rc(|uirements were pro- 
vided, to go into effect January 1. 1904. as follows: 6. that 
the application to register be in the aj^plicant's own handwrit- 
ing; 7. that the voter prepare and deposit his ballot without 
aid from another. 

The minority report containing the Daniel j)lan recommended 
as permanent ref|uirements for those registering to vote: 1. 
the ability to read any section of the State constitution which 
might be submitted by the registration officers, and the ability 
to give a reasonable interpretation of the same ; 2. residence 
of two years in the State, one in the county or city, and thirty 
days in the precinct in which the application for the right to vote 
is made; 3. the prepayment of all capitati(^n taxes six months 
before the election ; 4. registration in the ajiplicant's own 
handwriting without assistance, exce])t in the case of old sol- 
diers and those physically incapable of doing so.'- 

" Debates of the Cflnstiiutional Conzu-iitiou of I'i'^: "ia, 1901-IO02, pp. 
599-606; 620-628. 

** The other minority report, that of Mr. Wysor. contained no 
understanding clause. 



154 PHElvPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

The Daniel plan was amended by Mr. Carter Glass to pro- 
vide for the ending of the understanding clause requirement on 
January 1, 1904. All these plans were referred to the Demo- 
cratic conference. After a long discussion, the Glass and 
Thorn factions adjourned the conference, got together and 
worked out a compromise plan. By this plan the understand- 
ing clause was to end in 1909, subject to a vote of the people 
at that time as to whether it should be permanent after that 
year. This was a compromise between the Glass plan of a 
temporary understanding clause and the Thorn plan. The 
compromise settled nothing definitely and was unsatisfactory. 
It was amended by Mr. Wysor, along lines proposed at an 
earlier time by Mr. Glass, so as to have the understanding 
clause inoperative after January 1, 1904. This amended plan 
was the one finally agreed upon.^^ 

Article II of the present Virginia Constitution, concerning 
the "elective franchise and cjualifications for office," which in- 
cludes the Glass compromise, was finally adopted by the con- 
vention on April 4, 1902 by a vote of 59 to 20. Eight Repub- 



" Debates, p. 2994. 

It was adopted by a vote of 59-20. Journal and Documents of the 
Constitutional Convention of Virginia, 1901-1902, p. 487. Mr. Wysor, 
like many who voted for the Glass plan, did not favor any under- 
standing clause, but accepted this compromise as the only possible 
means of effecting harmony among the various factions. (Debates, 
pp. 2993-2994). Dr. Mcllwaine, of Prince Edward, who was elected 
by the whites from the county that was the last to have negro rep- 
resentation, opposed even a temporary understanding clause, as too 
radical, and proposed as a substitute some form of educational test 
for registering. He characterized the understanding and grand- 
father clauses as a disgrace to the State. (Debates, 4996-3006). Mr. 
Hatton of Portsmouth said, "As one of those delegates who opposed 
the understanding clause and who comes from the Black Belt, I 
stand here in this presence and declare my thankfulness to the Al- 
mighty that I and my colleagues from the Black Belt were endowed 
with the wisdom and foresight to oppose and defeat the permanent 
understanding clause." Although opposing both the understanding 
and grandfather clauses he accepted the Glass compromise for the 
sake of harmony. (Debates, 3017). There were many similar expres- 
sions of opinion among those who voted for the compromise. 



THE NEGRO I\ VIRGINIA I'OLiriCS 155 

licans voted against it and none of them fur it. Anionj; tiie 
most prominent of the twelve Democrats who voted with the 
Repubhcans were Mcllwaine. of Prince Edward; Pollard, of 
Richmond city, and Watson, of Nottoway and Amelia. Some 
of these Democrats voted against the article because they con- 
sidered it too radical, and others because they thought that it 
was not sufficiently radical. 

The debate on the (|uestion as to wbctlicr tlic constitution 
should be submitted to the approval of the pcoj)le or proclaimed 
by the convention was one of the longest and most earnest of 
the session. Some alvocated its submission to the electorate 
provided for in the constitution. This would obviously have 
been little more than proclamation under another guise. To 
submit the constitution to the electorate as then constituted, on 
the other hand, would have meant a bitter and expensive cam- 
paign, and it might have meant even the defeat of the consti- 
tution and the return to the undesirable situation of former 
years. It was finally decided, on May 29. 1902. to proclaim tbe 
constitution. 

By Article II of this instrument every male citizen of the 
United States twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident 
of the State two years, of the county, city or town one year, 
and of the precinct in which he offers to vote thirty days next 
preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has paid his 
poll tax ($1.50) six months prior to the election, and has reg- 
istered, is allowed to vote. 

The following could register during 1002 and 1^0.^: 

"First. A person wlio, prior to the adoption of this Constitutii n, 
served in time of war in the army or navy of the United States or of 
the Confederate States; or, 

"Second. A son of any such person; or, 

"Third. A person who owns property, upon whicli. for tlic year 
preceding that in which he offers to register, state taxes aggregating 
at least one dollar have been paid; or, 

"Fourth. A person able to read any section of this Constitution 
submitted to him by the officers of registration and to give a rea- 
sonable explanation of the same; or, if unable to read such section, 
able to understand and to give a rea.'ionablc explanation thereof 
when read to him bv the officers." 



156 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

Those who registered under the above conditions during 
1902 and 1903 remained permanently on the roll of voters, 
provided that they did not cease to be residents of the State or 
otherwise disqualify themselves.^"* 

But after January 1, 1904, every male citizen of the United 
States having the qualifications of age and residence given 
above could register, provided : 

"First. That he lias personally paid to the proper officer all slate 
poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under this or the for- 
mer Constitution, for the three years next preceding that in which 
he oflfers to register; or, if he comes of age at such time that no 
poll tax shall have been assessable against him for the year pre- 
ceding the year in which he offers to register, has paid one dollar 
and fifty cents, in satisfaction of the first year's poll tax assessable 
against him; and, 

"Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application to 
register in his own handwriting, without aid, suggestion or memo- 
randum, in the presence of the registration officers, stating therein 
his name, age, date and place of birth, residence and occupation at 
the time and for the two years next preceding, and whether he has 
previously voted, and, if so, the state, county. And precinct in which 
he voted last; and, 

"Third. That he answer on oath an\^ and all questions affecting his 



" Those excluded from registering and voting are: "idiots, in- 
sane persons, and paupers; persons who, prior to the adoption of 
this Constitution, were disqualified from voting, by the conviction 
of crime, either within or without this State, and whose disabilities 
shall not have been removed; persons convicted after the adoption 
of this Constitution, either within or without this State, of treason, 
or of any felony, bribery, petit larceny, obtaining money or prop- 
erty under false pretenses, embezzlement, forgery, or perjury; per- 
sons who, while citizens of this State, after the adoption of this 
Constitution, have fought a duel with a deadly weapon, or sent or 
accepted a challenge to fight such duel, either within or without this 
State, or knowingly conveyed a challenge, or aided, or assisted in 
any way in the fighting of such duel." (Officers of the federal army 
or navy, inmates of charitable institutions and students at institu- 
tions of learning neither gain nor lose their right of suffrage by their 
location in the State or in any of its local divisions). Article II, sec- 
tions 2.T and 24. For complete text of Article IT, see Appendix 
Xo. II. 



THE NECKO IX VIRC.IMA POLITICS 157 

qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the officers of reg- 
istration, which questions, and his answers thereto, shall be reduced 
to writing, certified by the officers, and preserved as a part of their 

official records." 

Furthermore, since January 1, 1904, only those can vote who 
have paid, at least six months prior to the election, all poll taxes 
assessed or assessable against them for three years next jjreccd- 
ing that in which they offer to vote. \'oters, registered since Jan- 
uary 1, 1904, are also required, unless physically unable, to pre- 
pare and deposit their ballots without aid. Those registering 
prior to that date can receive such aid. The understanding 
clause and the grandfather clause were not ctTective after that 
date. 

It was enacted that the General Assembly may j^rescribc a 
property qualification not exceeding two hundred dollars for 
voting in any election of officers, other than the members of the 
General Assembly, to be elected by the voters of such county 
or subdivision thereof or city, or town; such action, if taken, 
to be made upon the initiative of a representative in the Gen- 
eral Assembly of the locality concerned.^-"' 

Rules governing registration were made, and registration of- 
ficers in the several counties, to hold office until 1904. were ap- 
pointed by the convention."' 

The constitution was signed by all the Democratic members 
except those who were unable to be present. Only two of the 
twelve Republican delegates were willing to piU their signa- 
tures to the instrument.^''' 



"Article II, Section 30. 

" Journal and Documents of the Constitutional Convention of I'ir- 
ginia, 1901-1902. 

" The Republican members of the convention voted in matters of 
representation and suffrage almost solidly against any changes m 
the Constitution of 1868, as it then existed. Their attitude towards 
negro suffrage was in keeping with the traditions of the Republican 
party in Virginia and witli the national Republican Platform of 1900. 
which said. "It was the plain purpose of the Fifi. enth .\mcndment 
of the Constitution to prevent discrimination on account of race or 
color in regulating the elective franchise. The devices of such 
[state] governments, ordered by statutory or constitutional enact- 
ment, are revolutionary and sliould be condemned." 



158 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

The new constitution of Virginia was a remarkably conserv- 
ative and moderate instrument in view of the pohtical and ra- 
cial conditions that existed and that had existed in the State. 
Its reception at the hands of the public in the North shows a 
marked change in the attitude of that section towards the 
struggle of the Southern States to solve their great problem. 
But there were still some voices raised in protests which sa- 
vored of the violence and sectionalism of the ultra-abolitionisti 
of the days of war and the Reconstruction. The Nation, for 
example, which had shown remarkable moderation when the 
South was passing through its most trying period, hailed the 
work of the Virginia convention of 1901 as a "monstrous con- 
stitution." "The most preposterous questions," it said, "which 
no constitutional lawyer of eminence could answer off-hand, 
have been asked of negro citizens of means, probity, and 
standing, when they have sought to exercise the right of suf- 
frage conferred upon them by the Congress and the people of 
the United States." ^^ fhe fallacy and injustice of this state- 
ment is apparent from a glance at the constitution. No man 
fulfilling the common requirement of age and residence, who 
had about three hundred dollars' worth of property upon which 
he paid taxes, (that is, upon which state taxes aggregating at 
least one dollar had been paid), was required to interpret the 
constitution or was prevented from voting if he paid his poll 
tax i»— be he white or black. "Men of means, property and 
standing" are obviously not excluded from voting under the 
Constitution of 1902. In fact an argument used on several oc- 
casions by those advocating these requirements in the conven- 
tion was that the better class of negroes would welcome the 



" The Nation, December 25, 1902 (Ixxv; 496). 

" There were at this time only 8,144 male negro citizens of the 
Commonwealth who were assessed for taxes on real estate valued 
at $:500. (There were 95,662 whites). Document in Journal and 
Documents of the Constitutional Convention of iQOi. There were only 
31,976 colored males in the vState in 1901 assessed for taxes on prop- 
erty of the value of $100 whether real, personal, or both combined. 
Ibid., Document No. 17. There were at that time 69,358 illiterate 
male negroes of voting age. Ibid., Document No. 7. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 159 

elimination of those of their race who cast discredit upon all 
colored voters, and that the regulations placed upon the suf- 
frage would stimulate the more worthy and aml)itious among 
those who were disfranchised to better tlicir economic and so- 
cial condition. Some of the better class actually advocated the 
limiting of the negro vote for these reasons. The objectional 
grandfather and understanding clauses were in force only 
eighteen months. 

These clauses were incori)oratcd in the constitution for the 
purpose of giving many illiterate whites the opi)ortunity to en- 
roll, while excluding illiterate negroes. This was necessary in 
order to obtain the support of the western counties for the 
constitution. The illiterate whites were fewer in number than 
the illiterate negroes and had not been a political menace ex- 
cept when they combined with the negroes in State politics. 
Furthermore, as the Rerie^c of /?^'/rrc'^ rightly observed, 
there is nothing "radically unfair in this plan. Generally 
speaking, the illiterate white man possesses greater political ca- 
pacity than the illiterate negro. The important part of a meas- 
ure of this kind is not the temporary but the permanent method 
that it introduces. . The best and wi.sest friends of 

the negro race are not worrying themselves at all about new 
Southern franchise laws. No Southern State has made provi- 
sions which exclude the negro of intelligence and property." -'^ 

The changed attitude of though ful people in other parts of 
the country towards this legislation was due to a better under- 
standing of the problem facing the South and to more cordial 
relations between the different sections. A generation of ex- 
perimentation, discussion and study had forced the more oper- 
minded of both races, who knew conditions in the South, to 
agree with Charles Dudley Wamer when he said that "no per- 
manent righteous adjustment of relations" could come until 
the negro would cease to be tempted with office for which he 
was in no sense fitted, and until he was no longer made a 
"pawn in the game of politics"; that liberal education for the 



*• Re7icii' of Rc7'iczi's, May. 1902. (xxv. .'5:^3): see also the Outlook, 
June 13, 1903. (Ixxiv, 399) and Ixxv. 493 984. 



160 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

masses of the negroes at the South had been for the most part 
a failure; and that the negroes' greatest needs were social bet- 
terment and industrial education. ^i 

George Washington Murray, a colored man and sometime 
member of Congress from South Carolina, wrote in 1902, "As 
we see it, the mistake of the nineteenth century was the at- 
tempt to make the ex-slave a governor before he had learned 
to be governed." 22 "In my mind," wrote Booker T. Washing- 
ton in 1901, "there is no doubt but that we made a mistake at 
the beginning of our freedom of putting the emphasis on the 
wrong end. Politics and the holding of office were too largely 
emphasized, almost to the exclusion of every other interest." 23 

Fortunately, the negroes of America had at this time as their 
leader, Booker T. Washington, of Virginia, a man whose in- 
tellect, zeal and tact won him the respect and admiration of 
men of both races and of all sections. He came into promi- 
nence at the time when the negroes were being eliminated from 
politics by legal methods in one Southern State after another. 
He did much to acquaint the North with the real conditions 
and needs of his people in the South, to show the South the 
negro point of view and to teach his people a new doctrine, 
which most of their former leaders had ignored — that they 
should first make themselves fit citizens before clamoring for 
the full privileges of citizenship, that material prosperity and 
moral worth were essential for their true enlightenment and 
power, and that practical moral and manual training was what 
they most needed. He also taught them that they had no need 
of troubling themselves or their white neighbors about social 



" Address at Columbia University before the American Social Sci- 
ence Association. Quoted in the Richmond Times, May 9, 1900. 

'^ In the Tiventieth Century Negro Literature, edited by D. W. Gulp, 
p. 232. See also article by George TT. White, a negro who was 
elected as a representative in Congress from North Carolina in 1896 
and in 1898, pp. 224, 225. For the view of a Northern mulatto who 
represented the anti-Booker T. Washington school, see article by T. 
Thomas Fortune, editor of the New York Age, Ibid., pp. 227-231. 

" Booker T. Washington, The future of the American Negro, p. 
130. 



TIIF. N'ECRO IX VIRCIXIA POIJTICS 161 

equality. "In all things that are purely social," he said, "wc 
can be as separate as tlft fingers, yet one as the hand in all 
things essential to mutual progress." -^ His advice came at an 
opportune time and aided in no small degree in turning the 
thoughts of the colored peojile away from politics and other 
things that had brought them only useless sorrow in the j)ast. 
and in interesting them in what ihcy really needed. 

It is a matter of regret that it has been necessary to disfran- 
chise a large body of citizens by methods some of which did 
not seem in themselves commendable. But as a very just aiid 
capable writer on the subject, lulgar Gardner Mur])hy, has ex- 
pressed it. "The supreme (|Ucstion was not the protection of the 
negro l)ut the ])rotection of society itself. . . . White 
supremacy, at that stage in the devel()])ment of the Sfnith. was 
necessary to the supremacy of intelligence, administrative ca- 
pacity and public order, and involved even tiie existence of 
those economic and civic conditions upon which tlie progress 
of the negro was itself dependent." -•'' 

The negroes were an active factor in N'irginia politics for 
thirty-seven years. When initiated into politics, they were led 
by unscrupulous men to vote in opposition to their former mas- 
ters. They were taught that they were already capable of as- 
suming control of the government, and were carried away by 
the speech-making, elections and other outward forms of 
politics. In 1868 they attempted to withhold the franchise 
from thousands of tiie wdiite people and to jireveiu practically 
every reputable white man in the State from holding office. 
The color line was closely drawn by the negroes and their 
white leaders. After the eliiuination of the carpetbaggers. c»'l- 
ored voters were used to keej) the Readjnster party and the 
Mahone machine in power from 1879 to 188.V After 188.^ the 
negro vote ceased to determine State elections. But thi- ne- 
groes continued to elect officers in the black comUies nntl tlie 
nineties and were a constant source of election fr.-nnU. trickerv 

- " Atlanta Exposition address quoted in Rookcr T. Washington. 
I'p From Slavery, ch. xiv. 
" Edgar Gardner Murphy, Problems of the Prcscttt South, p. 100. 

—11 



162 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

and irritation that threatened to corrupt the whole body politic 
of the Commonwealth. Race relations were becoming more 
strained. To remedy this state of affairs, the Constitution of 
1902 was adopted. The race question then became only a po- 
tential factor in Virginia politics. 

The subsequent history of Virginia has proved the wisdom 
of the suffrage laws embodied in the Constitution of 1902. 
Fraud in elections is almost unknown in the Commonwealth, 
and men have become more independent in politics. The best 
element of the negroes continues to vote. The colored people 
have made remarkable progress and race relations have been 
good. 

Though the people of Virginia and of the nation can con- 
gratulate themselves upon this progress and harmony, they 
should ever be mindful of the fact that wherever two widely 
dissimilar races live side by side in great numbers and can not 
mingle their blood, there exists a problem that can never be ig- 
nored, and that mutual undestanding, good feeling and justice 
on all sides are necessary for harmony. An accurate knowl- 
edge of race conditions in Virginia, not only of the past but of 
the present, are necessary for an unbiased judgment in consid- 
ering race relations. The races in Virginia now work together 
in harmony and are friends. This relationship will continue 
only so long as no exterior factor disturbs the equilibrium. 
There can be no more appropriate conclusion to this work than 
the good advice of Senator John Sharp Williams, of Missis- 
sippi, "In the face of this great problem, it would be well that 
wise men think more, that good men pray more, and that all 
men talk less and curse less." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

A Bibliography of Virginia, Part I. by Earl 0. Svveni, X'irginia 
State Library Bulletin, vol. 8, nos. 2-4 (1915). 

Ibid. Part II. \'irginia State Library Bulletin, vol. 10. nos. 1-4 
(1917). 

A Bibliography of the Conventions and Co>istih(tio)is of Vir- 
ginia by Earl G. Swem. Virginia Sate Library Bulletin, 
vol. 3, no. 4 (1910). 

Senate Journal and Documents. 

House Journal and Documents. 

Acts of Assembly. 

Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Contention of 
Virginia. 1901-1902 (1906). 

Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of 
1867-1868, vol. I. (Debates througli January 29. 1868). 
The second volume was never j^ublished and there arc now 
no known reports of the debates after January 29. 1868 in 
manuscript form. For a later efTort to publish the re- 
mainder of the Debates see House Journal 1870-1871, p. 
115. According to the Richmond Dispatch (April 25. 
1868), "The Debates are utterly worthless. They arc a 
fraud because the jargon of the negroes is rendered into 
tolerable language and will appear as the declamation of 
passably well informed orators." W. M. Samuel, the of- 
ficial reporter for the convention, frankly admitted that he 
had polished up the language of the Debates, lie was 
aided in this work by Edgar Allen. (Documents of the 
Convention of 1867-1868). The actual and complete re- 
ports of the convention can be had in the Richmonil Pis- 
patch and in the Richmond Enquirer. 

Journal and Documents of the Constitutional Conzrntion of 
1901. (1901). 

Journal of the Constitutional Convention of lb67-1868. (1867). 

Documents of the Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868. 
(1867). 



164 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

Negroes in the United States. Census Bulletin no. 8. 

The Negroes of Farmvillc, Virginia, by W. E. B. DuBois, U. 
S. Department of Labor Bulletin no. 14. This is an excel- 
lent and candid study of local conditions in a typical 
county and town of the black belt of Virginia. 

H. J. Eckenrode, "Political History of Virginia During Re- 
construction," in JoJins Hopkins University Studies, xxii 
(1904). 

J. P. McConnell, Negroes and Their Treatment in Virginia 
from 1865 to 1867. (1909). 

C. C. Pearson, The Readjuster Movement in Virginia (1917). 
This and the two monographs next preceding are the best 
accounts of the periods of which they treat. Note the bib- 
liography of this book. 

C. H. Ambler, The History of Sectionalism in Virginia from 
1776 to 1861, (1910). " 

J. A. C. Chandler, Representation in Virginia (Johns Hopkins 
University Studies vol. xiv 1896). 

J. A. C. Chandler, The History of Suffrage in Virginia (JoJins 
Hopkins University Studies vol. xix 1901). 

G. T. Stephenson, Race Distinctions in American Latv, (1910). 

W. A. Dunning, Bssays on Civil War and Reconstruction, 
(1898). 

William L. Royall, History of the J'irginia State Debt Contro- 
versy, (1897). 

Walter L. Fleming, Documentary History of Reconstruction, 
(1906). 

(Note especially the introductory chapters). 

P. A. Bruce, The Plantation Negro as a Frcedman, (1889). 

James M. Callahan, "Political Parties in the South Since 1860," 
in The South in the Building of the Nation, (1909). See 
articles by Bruce, Clarke and others in this work. 

Appleton's Annual American Cyclopaedia, article, "Virginia." 

The Twentieth Century Negro Literature, (1902), D. W. Culp, 
editor. 

Thomas V. Cooper and liector T. Fenton, American Politics, 
(1882). 



TUF, XKGRO I\ VIKCIMA POLITICS 165 

lVarrock-Richardso)i Almanac. Valuable in giving political af- 
filiations of the of^ceholders of the State, hut not com- 
plete or always dependable in distinguishing between white 
and colored officeholders. Supplement with newspapers. 

John E. Massey, Autobiography, (1909). 

John Goode. Recollections of a Lifetime. (19()6). 

Thomas Gary Johnson. Life and Letters of Robert Leu'is Dab- 
ney. (1903). 

General John M. Schnficld. Pnrty-Si.v )'ears in the .■h)ny. 
(1897). 

R. E. Withers. Autobiography of an Octogenarian. (1907). 

\y. L. Royall, Sotne Reminiscences. (1909). 

E. A. Alderman and A. C. Gordon. /. L. M. Curry. A Biogra- 
phy. 

Booker T. Washington. Up from Slavery. (1907). 

Alfred Holt Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem. 
(1908). 

Edgar Gardner Murphy, Problems of the Present South. 
(1904). 

B. T. Washington. Putnre of the American Negro. 

University of Virginia Phelps-Stokes Pello7<-ship Papers. 

North American Revieiv. 

The Nation. 

The Richmond Enquirer and E.vamincr. 

The Richmond Dispatch. 

The Richmond State. 

The Riciimond JVhig. 

In addition to the above items, mnnerous pamphlets in the 
\Mrginia State Lilirary. and elsewhere, local newspapers and 
personal accounts of contcmjwraries have been made u.sc of in 
the preparation of this paper. 

For an interesting short account of Reconstruction from the 
point of view of \Mrginians, see "Reconstruction in X'iri^inia." 
a letter written by John Randolph Tucker to lion. G. W, 
Woodward of Pennsylvania and published m the Richiuotul 
Enquirer and E.vaininer. June 24, 1868. 



APPENDIX I 



Article III, Coxstitutio.v of Virginia, 1868.* 
Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office. 



Section 1. Every male citizen of the United vStates. twenty- 
one years old. who ^hall have been a resident of this state 
twelve months, and of the county, city or town in which he 
shall oflfer to vote, three months next i)recedinp any election. 
shall be entitled to vote upon all ([uestions submitted to the peo- 
ple at such election : provided, that no officer, soldier, seaman 
or marine of the United States army or navy shall be consid- 
ered a resident of this state by reason of 1)einf^ stationed therein : 
and provided also, that the following: j)crsons shall be exchided 
from voting : 

1st. Idiots and lunatics. 

2nd. Persons convicted of bribery in any election, embez- 
zlement of public funds, treason or felony. 

3rd. No person wlio. while a citizen of this state, has, since 
the adoption of this constitution, fought a duel with a deadly 
weapon, either within or beyond the boundaries of this state, 
or knowingly conveyed a challenge, or aided or assisted in any 
manner in fighting a duel, shall be allowed to vote or hold any 
ol^ce of honor, profit or trust, under this constitution. 

[4th. Every person who has been a senator or representa- 
tive in congress, or elector of president or vice-president, or 
who held any office, civil or military, under the United States, 
or under any state, who, having previously taken an oatr. as a 
member of congress, or as an officer of the United States, or 
as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or ju- 
dicial officer of any state, shall have engaged .n insurrection or 



' Code of Virginia, 1S73, pp. 70-TL 



168 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the ene- 
mies thereof. 

"This clause shall include the following officers: governor, 
lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of public ac- 
counts, second auditor, register of the land office, state treas- 
urer, attorney-general, sherififs, sergeants of a city or town, 
commissioner of the revenue, county surveyors, constables, 
overseers of the poor, commissioner of the board of public 
works, judges of the supreme court, judges of the circuit court, 
judges of the court of hustings, judges of the county courts, 
mayor, recorder, aldermen, councilmen of a city or town, cor- 
oners, escheators, inspectors of tobacco, flour, &c., clerks of the 
supreme, district, circuit, and county courts, and of the court 
of hustings, and attorneys for the commonwealth : provided, 
that the legislature may, by a vote of three-fifths of both 
houses, remove the disabilities incurred by this clause from any 
person included therein by a separate vote in each case.] ^ 

Sec. 2. All elections shall be by ballot, and all persons enti- 
tled to vote shall be eligible to any office within the gift of the 
people, except as restricted in this constitution. 

Sec. 3. All persons entitled to vote and hold office, and none 
others, shall be eligible to sit as jurors. 

Sec. 4. The general assembly shall, at its first session under 
this constitution, enact a general registration law; and every 
person offering or applying to register shall take and subscribe, 
before the officer charged with making a registration of voters, 
the following oath : 

"I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am 

not disqualified from exercising the right of suffrage by the 
constitution framed by the convention which assembled in the 
city of Richmond on the third day of December, 1867, and that 
I will support and defend the same to the best of my ability." 

Sec. 5. No voter, during the time of holding any election at 
which he is entitled to vote, shall be compelled to perform niil- 



' Code of Virginia, 1873, pp. 26-27. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRCINIA POLITICS 169 

itary service, except in time of war or public dangjer, to work 
upon public roads, or to attend any court as suitor, juror or 
witness: and no voter shall be subject to arrest, under any 
civil process, during his attendance at elections, or in goinj; to 
or returning from them. 

Oath of Offfce. 

Sec. 6. All persons, before entering upon the discharge of 
any function as officers of this state, must take and subscribe 
the following oath or affirmation : 

"I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 1 will 

support and maintain the constitution and laws of the United 
States, and the constitution and laws of the state of Virginia ; 
that I recognize and accept the civil and political e(|uality of all 
men before the law, and that I will faithfully perform the duty 
of to the best of my ability. So help me God." 

[Sec. 7. In addition to the foregoing oath of office, the gov- 
ernor, lieutenant-governor, members of the general assembly, 
secretary of state, auditor of public accounts, state treasurer, 
attorney-general, and all persons elected to any convention to 
frame a constitution for this state, or to amend or revise this 
constitution in any manner, and mayor and council of any city 
or town, shall, before they enter on the duties of their respec- 
tive offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirma- 
tion, provided the disabilities therein contained may be individ- 
ually removed by a three-fifths vote of the general assembly: 

"I^ , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have 

never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I 
have been a citizen thereof : that T have voluntarily given no 
aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement, to i)ersons en- 
gaged in armed hostility thereto; that T have never sought nor 
accepted, nor attempted to exercise the functions of any of- 
fice whatever, under any authority or pretended authority, in 
hostility to the United States; that I have nt yielded a volun- 
tary support to any pretended government, authority, iiowor nr 
constitution, within the United States, hostile or inimical 
thereto. And I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best 



170 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the 
constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign 
and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the 
same ; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental res- 
ervation or purpose of evasion ; and that I will well and faith- 
fully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to 
enter. So help me God." The above oath shall also be taken 
by all the city and county officers before entering upon their 
duties, and by all other state officers not included in the above 
provision."] ^ 



■ Code of Virginia, 1873, p. 27. 



APPENDIX II 



Article II, Constitution of Virginia, 1902. 
Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office. 



Sec. 18. Every male citizen of the United States, twenty-one 
years of age, who has been a resident of the State two years, 
of the county, city, or town one year, and of the precinct in 
which he offers to vote, thirty days, next preceding the election 
in which he oiTers to vote, has been registered, and has paid his 
state poll taxes, as hereinafter required, shall be entitled to vote 
for members of the General Assembly and all officers elective 
by the people ; but removal from one precinct to another, in the 
same county, city, or town shall not deprive any person of his 
right to vote in the precinct from which he has moved, until the 
expiration of thirty days after such removal. 

Sec 19. There shall be general registrations in the counties, 
cities and towns of the State during the years nineteen hun- 
dred and two and nineteen hundred and three at such times and 
in such manner as may be prescribed by an ordinance of this 
convention. At such registrations every male citizen of the 
United States having the qualifications of age and residence 
required in section Eighteen shall be entitled to register, it lu- 
be: 

First. A person who, prior to the adoption of this Constitu- 
tion, served in time of war in the army or navy of the United 
States, of the Confederate States, or of any state of the United 
States or of the Confederate States ; or. 

Second. A son of any such person; or. 

Third. A person, who owns property, up n which. ff)r the 
year next preceding that in which he offers to register, state 
taxes aggregating at least one dollar have been paid : or. 

Fourth. A person able to read any section of this Constitu- 
tion submitted to him by the officers of registration and to give 



172 PIIELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

a reasonable explanation of the same; or, if unable to read 
such section, able to understand and give a reasonable expla- 
nation thereof when read to him by the officers. 

A roll containing the names of all persons thus registered, 
sworn to and certified by the officers of registration, shall be 
filed, for record and preservation, in the clerk's office of the 
circuit court of the county, or the clerk's office of the corpora- 
tion court of the city, as the case may be. Persons thus en- 
rolled shall not be required to register again, unless they shall 
have ceased to be residents of the State, or become disqualified 
by section Twenty-Three. Any person denied registration un- 
der this section shall have the right of appeal to the circuit 
court of his county, or the corporation court of his city, or to 
the judge thereof in vacation. 

Sec. 20. After the first day of January, nineteen hundred 
and four, every male citizen of the United States, having the 
qualifications of age and residence required in section Eighteen, 
shall be entitled to register, provided: 

First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all 
state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him, under this 
or the former Constitution, for the three years next preceding 
that in which he ofifers to register; or, if he come of age at such 
time that no ])oll tax shall have been assessable against him for 
the year preceding the year in which he offers to register, 
has paid one dollar and fifty cents, in satisfaction of the first 
year's poll tax assessable against him ; and. 

Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application 
to register in his own hand-writing, without aid, suggestion, or 
memorandum, in the presence of the registration officers, stat- 
ing therein his name, age, date and place of birth, residence 
and occupation at the time and for the two years next preced- 
ing, and whether he has ])reviously voted, and, if so, the state, 
county, and precinct in which he voted last ; and. 

Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affect- 
ing his qualifications as an elector, submitted to him by the of- 
ficers of registration, which questions, and his answers thereto, 



THE NEGRO IN VIKGIXIA POLITICS 173 

shall be reduced to writing, certified by the said officers, and 
preserved as a part of their official records. 

Sec. 21. Any person, registered under cither of the last two 
sections, shall iiavc tlie right to vote for niL-nibers of the Gen- 
eral Asseml)ly and all officers elective by the pco{)le. subject to 
the following conditions : 

That he, unless exempted by section Twenty-two. shall, as a 
prerequisite to the right to vote after the first day of lainiary. 
nineteen hundred and four, personally pay, at least six months 
prior to the election, all state poll taxes assessed or assessable 
against hiiu, under 'his Constitution, during the three years 
next preceding that in whicli lie offers to vote; provided that, 
if he register after the first day of January, nineteen hundred 
and four, lie shall, un.less ])hysical!y unable, prepare and de- 
posit his ballot without aid, on such printed form as tlie law 
may prescribe ; but any voter registered (>rior to that date may 
be aided in the preparation of his ballot by such officer of elec- 
tion as he himself may designate. 

Sec. 22. No person who, during the late war between the 
States, served in the army or navy of the United States, or the 
Confederate States, or any state of the United States, or of the 
Confederate States, shall at any time be required to pay a poll 
tax as a prerecfuisite to the rigiit to register or vote. The col- 
lection of the state poll tax assessed against any one shall not 
be enforced by legal process until the same has become three 
years past due. 

Sec. 23. The following persons shall be excluded from reg- 
istering and voting: Idiots, insane persons, and paupers; per- 
sons who, prior to the adoption of this Constitution, were flis- 
qualified from voting by conviction of crime, either within or 
without this State, and whose disabilities shall not have been 
removed; persons convicted after the adoption of this Consti- 
tution, either within or without this State, of treason, or of any 
felonv, bribery, petit larceny, obtaining money or property un- 
der false pretences, embezzlement, forgery. »r perjury ; per- 
sons who. while citizens of this State, after the adoption of this 
Constitution, have fought a duel with a deadly weapon, or sent 



174 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

or accepted a challenge to fight such duel, either within or with- 
out this State, knowingly conveyed a challenge, or aided or as- 
sisted in any way in the fighting of such duel. 

Sec. 24. No officer, soldier, seaman, or marine of the United 
States army or navy shall be deemed to have gained a resi- 
dence as to the right of suffrage, in the State, or in any county, 
city or town thereof, by reason of being stationed therein ; nor 
shall an inmate of any charitable institution or a student in any 
institution of learning, be regarded as having either gained or 
lost a residence, as to the right of suffrage by reason of his lo- 
cation or sojourn in such institution. 

Sec. 25. The General Assembly shall provide for the annual 
registration of voters under Section Twenty, for an appeal by 
any person denied registration, for the correction of illegal or 
fraudulent registration, thereunder, and also for the proper 
transfer of all voters registered under this Constitution. 

Sec 26. Any person who, in respect to age or residence, 
would be qualified to vote at the next election, shall be ad- 
mitted to registration, notwithstanding that at the time thereof 
he is not so qualified, and shall be entitled to vote at said elec- 
tion if then qualified under the provisions of this Constitution. 

Sec. 27. All elections by the people shall be by ballot ; all 
elections by any representative body shall be viva voce, and the 
vote recorded in the journal thereof. 

The ballot-box shall be kept in public view during all elec- 
tions, and shall not be opened, nor the ballots canvassed or 
counted, in secret. 

So far as consistent with the provisions of this Constitution, 
the absolute secrecy of the ballot shall be maintained. 

Sec. 28. The Czcneral Assembly shall provide for ballots, 
without any distinguishing mark or symbol, for use in all state, 
county, city, and other elections by the people, and the form 
thereof shall be the same in all places where any such election 
is held. All ballots shall contain the names of the candidates, 
and of the offices to be filled, in clear print and in due and or- 
derly succession ; but any voter may erase any name and insert 
another. 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 175 

Sec. 29. No voter, during the time of holding anv election at 
which he is entitled to vote, shall be compelled to [jerfonn mil- 
itary service, except in time of war or public danger; to attend 
any court as suitor, juror, or witness; and no voter shall be 
subject to arrest under any civil process during his attendance 
at election or in going to or returning therefrom. 

Sec. 30. The General Assembly may prescribe a jiroperty 
qualification not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars for 
voters in any county or subdivision thereof, or citv or town, as 
a prerequisite for voting in any election for officers, other than 
the members of the (^icneral .Assembly, to be wholly elected by 
the voters of such county or subdivision thereof, or city, or 
town; such action, if taken, to be had u])on the initiative of a 
representative in the (^icneral .Assembly of the county, city, or 
town affected ; provided, that the General Assembly in its dis- 
cretion may make such exemptions from the operation of said 
property qualification as shall not be in conflict with the con- 
stitution of the United States. 

Sec. 31. There shall be in each county and city an electoral 
board, composed of three members, ai)pointed by the circuit 
court of the county or the corporation court of the city, or the 
judge of the court in vacation. Of those first appointed, one 
shall be ap])ointC(l for a term of one year, one for a term of 
two years, and one for a term of three years; and thereafter 
their successors shall be ajipointed for the full term of three 
years. Any vacancy occurring in any board shall be filled by 
the same authority for the unexpired term. 

Each electoral board shall appoint the judges, clerks, and 
registrars of election for its county or city ; and. in appointing 
judges of election, representation as far as possible shall be 
given to each of the two political parties which, at the general 
election next preceding their appointment, cast the highest and 
next higliesl number of votes. 

No person, nor the deputy of any person, holding any office 
or post of profit or emolument, under the U.ited States (^.ov- 
ernment. or who is in the employment of such government, or 
holding any elective office of profit or trust in the State, or in 



176 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

any county, city, or town thereof, shall be appointed a member 
of the electoral board, or registrar, or judge of election. 

Sec. 32. Every person ciualified to vote shall be eligible to 
any office of the State, or of any county, city, town, or other 
subdivision of the State, wherein he resides, except as other- 
wise provided in this Constitution, and except that this provi- 
sion as to residence shall not apply to any office elective by 
the people where the law provides otherwise. Men and women 
eighteen years of age shall be eligible to the office of notary 
public, and (jualified to execute the bonds required of them in 
that capacity. 

Sec. 33. The terms of all officers elected under this Consti- 
tution shall begin on the first day of February next succeeding 
their election, unless otherwise provided in this Constitution. 
All officers, elected or appointed, shall continue to discharge 
the duties of their offices after their terms of service have ex- 
pired until their successors have qualified. 

Sec. 34. Members of the General Assembly and all officers, 
executive and judicial, elected or appointed after this Constitu- 
tion goes into effect, shall, before they enter on the perform- 
ance of their public duties, severally take and subscribe the fol- 
lowing oath or affirmation : 

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the 
Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the 
State of Virginia ordained by the convention which assembled 
in the city of Richmond on the twelfth day of June, nineteen 
hundred and one. and that I will faithfully and impartially dis- 
charge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as , 

according to the best of my ability; so help me God." 

Sec. 35. No person shall vote at any legalized primary elec- 
tion for the nomination of any candidate for office unless he is 
at the time registered and qualified to vote at the next succeed- 
ing election. 

Sec. 36. The General Assembly shall enact such laws as are 
necessary and proper for the purpose of securing the regularity 
and purity of general, local and primary elections, and prevent- 
ing and punishing any corrupt ])ractices in connection there- 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 177 

with ; and shall have power, in addition to other penalties and 
punishments now or hereafter prescribed by law for such of- 
fences, to provide that persons convicted of them shall there- 
after be disqualified from voting or holding office. 

Sec. 2>7. The General Assembly may provide for the use, 
throughout the State or in any one or more counties, cities, or 
towns in any election, of machines for receiving, recording, and 
counting the votes cast thereat: provided, that the secrecy of 
the voting be not thereby impaired. 

Sec. 38. After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and 
four, the treasurer o*^ each county and city shall, at least five 
months before each regular election, file with the clerk of the 
circuit court of his county, or of the corjioration court of his 
city, a list of all persons in his county or city, who have paid 
not later than six months prior to such election, the state ])oll 
taxes required by this Constitution during the three years next 
preceding that in which such election is held ; which list shall 
be arranged alphabetically, by magisterial districts or wards, 
shall state the white and colored persons separately, and shall 
be verified by the oath of the treasurer. The clerk, within ten 
days from the receipt of the list, shall make and certify a suf!i- 
cient number of copies thereof, and shall deliver one copy for 
each voting place in his county or city, to the sheriff of the 
county or sergeant of the city, whose duty it shall be to post 
one copy, without delay, at each of the voting places, and, 
within ten days from the receii)t thereof, to make return on 
oath to the clerk, as to the places where and dates at which 
said copies were respectively posted: which return the ckrk 
shall record in a book kept in his office for the purpose: and he 
shall keep in his office for public inspection, for at least sixty 
days after receiving the list, not less than ten certified copies 
thereof, and also cause the list to be published in such other 
manner as may be prescribed by law: the original list returned 
by the treasurer shall be filed and preserved by the clerk among 
the public records of his office for at least five years after re- 
ceiving the same. Within thirty days after the list has been so 
posted, any person who shall have paid his capitation tax, but 
whose name is omitted from the certified list, may, after five 
—13 



178 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 

days' written notice to the treasurer, apply to the circuit court 
of his county, or corporation court of his city, or to the judge 
thereof in vacation, to have the same corrected and his name 
entered thereon, which appHcation the court or judge shall 
promptly hear and decide. 

The clerk shall deliver, or cause to be delivered, with the 
poll-books, at a reasonable time before every election, to one of 
the judges of election of each precinct of his county or city, a 
like certified copy of the list, which shall be conclusive evidence 
of the facts therein stated for the purpose of voting. The clerk 
shall also, within sixty days after the filing of the list by the 
treasurer, forward a certified copy thereof, with such correc- 
tions as may have been made by order of the court or judge, 
to the Auditor of Public Accounts, who shall charge the 
amount of the poll taxes stated therein to such treasurer un- 
less previously accounted for. 

Further evidence of the prepayment of the capitation taxes 
required by this Constitution, as a prerequisite to the right to 
register and vote, may be prescribed by law. 



APPENDIX III 



Consolidated List of Persons Registered as Voters in the 

State of Virginia under the REa)NSTRUCTioN Acts 

OF Congress. (1867).i 

Number Registered 
\ 
No. Counties, ttc. 

1 Richmond City 

2 Xorfolk County, City of 

Portsmouth 

3 Albemarle 

4 Augusta 

5 Bedford 

6 Campbell 

7 Halifax 

8 Loudoun 

9 Mecklenburg 

10 Pittsylvania 

11 Rockingham 

12 Xorfolk City 

13 Petersburg City 

14 Alexandria 

15 Amelia 

16 Amherst 

17 Botetourt 

18 Brunswick 

19 Buckingham 

20 Charlotte 

31 Culpeper 

22 Cumberland 

23 Fairfax 

24 Fluvanna 

25 Frederick 

26 Goochland 

27 Hanover 

28 Henrico 

29 Henry 



^hite 1 


Colored 


Total 


Per cent 
Colored 


5,382 


6,284 


1 1 .666 


54.0 


2.738 


3,281 


6,019 


54.5 


2,310 


2,759 


5.069 


54.4 


3,579 


1,362 


4.941 


27.6 


2,408 


2,110 


4,518 


46.7 


2,576 


2,978 


5,554 


53.6 


1,980 


3,402 


5.382 


63.2 


2,799 


1,007 


3,806 


26.5 


1,275 


2,843 


4,118 


69.0 


2,768 


3,534 


6,302 


56.0 


2,881 


431 


3,312 


13.0 


1.910 


2,049 


3,9.59 


51.8 


1,546 


2.647 


4.193 


63.0 


1.491 


1,933 


3,524 


54.8 


494 


1,492 


1,986 


75.0 


1.515 


1,371 


2,886 


47.5 


1.420 


662 


2.082 


31.8 


775 


1,733 


2,508 


69.1 


1,072 


1,799 


2,871 


62.6 


913 


2.080 


2,993 


69 5 


1,005 


896 


1,901 


47.1 


535 


1,331 


1,866 


71.4 


1,400 


1.039 


2,439 


42.6 


SS4 


970 


1,854 


52.4 


2.093 


540 


2.633 


20.5 


662 


1,519 


2.181 


69.5 


1 ..'■.04 


1,556 


3,060 


50.9 


1 .229 


1,8: -> 


3,108 


60.4 


1.017 


1.00«) 


2,023 


49.7 



^ Documents of the Constitutional Con:rntifln of 1867-1868. 



180 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 



30 Louisa 

31 Lunenburg 

32 Montgomery 

33 Nansemond 

34 Nelson 

35 Nottoway 

36 Orange 

37 Princess Anne 

38 Southampton 

39 Wythe 

40 Chesterfield 

41 Powhatan 

42 Caroline 

43 King George 

44 Spottsylvania 

45 Accomac 

46 Northampton 

47 Bath 

48 Highland 

49 Rockbridge 

50 Carroll 

51 Floyd 

52 Grayson 

53 Fauquier 

54 Rappahannock .... 

55 Northumberland . . . 

56 Lancaster 

57 Richmond 

58 Westmoreland . . . . 

59 Patrick 

60 Franklin 

61 Prince Edward . . . . 

62 Appomattox 

63 Prince George 

64 Dinwiddie 

65 Lee 

66 Scott 

67 Wise 

f>8 Page 

69 Shenandoah 

70 Smyth 

71 Washington 

72 Alleghany 

73 Craig 

74 Roanoke 

75 Charles City (Co.) 



1,122 


1,761 


2,883 


61.1 


726 


1,219 


1,945 


62.6 


1,546 


567 


2,113 


26.8 


1,084 


1,154 


2,238 


51.6 


1,243 


1,268 


2,511 


50.5 


481 


1,448 


1,929 


75.1 


899 


1,081 


1,980 


54.6 


870 


931 


1,801 


51.6 


1,124 


1,273 


2,397 


53.1 


1,581 


480 


2,061 


23.3 


1,871 


2,018 


3,889 


51.9 


451 


1,173 


1,624 


72.2 


1,317 


1,402 


2,719 


51.6 


456 


439 


895 


49.0 


1,310 


1,026 


2,336 


44.0 


2,058 


1,470 


3,523 


41.7 


556 


1,004 


1,560 


64.4 


418 


111 


529 


21.0 


602 


58 


660 


8.8 


2,171 


1,051 


3,222 


32.6 


1,410 


65 


1,475 


4.4 


1,360 


189 


1,549 


12.2 


1.289 


128 


1,417 


9.0 


1,889 


1,299 


3,188 


40.7 


1,007 


479 


1,486 


32.2 


648 


451 


1,099 


41.0 


362 


487 


849 


57.4 


591 


489 


1,080 


45.3 


625 


663 


1,288 


51.5 


1,197 


326 


1.523 


21.4 


2,109 


1,091 


3,200 


34.1 


709 


1,659 


2,428 


68.2 


759 


903 


1,662 


54.2 


535 


1,095 


1,630 


67.2 


705 


1,606 


2,311 


69.6 


1,487 


120 


1.607 


7.5 


1,884 


110 


1,994 


5.0 


654 


9 


663 


1.3 


1,248 


190 


1,438 


13.2 


2,168 


176 


2.344 


7 5 


1,283 


319 


1,602 


19.9 


2,479 


637 


3,116 


20.4 


484 


93 


577 


16.1 


448 


47 


495 


9.5 


1,030 


650 


1.680 


38.6 


309 


658 


967 


68.0 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 181 

76 New Kent 370 

77 Clarke 763 

78 Warren 656 

79 Elizabeth City (Co.) 361 

80 Warwick 135 

81 Gloucester 864 

82 Matthews 651 

83 Isle of Wight 871 

84 Surry 447 

85 King and Queen 710 

86 King William 488 

87. Madison 808 

88 Greene 556 

89 Middlesex 388 

90 Essex 576 

91 Pulaski 693 

92 Giles 829 

93 Russell 1,415 

94 Buchanan 463 

95 Stafford 847 

96 Prince William 958 

97 Greenville 303 

98 Sussex 535 

99 Bland 687 

100 Tazewell 1,309 

101 James City (Co.) 226 

102 York 425 

Total 120.101 10.'i.832 225.933 47.0 



454 


824 


55.0 


378 


1,141 


34.2 


197 


853 


23.1 


1,585 


1,946 


81.5 


291 


426 


68.3 


869 


1.729 


50.2 


334 


985 


33.9 


656 


1,527 


4.1.0 


582 


1,029 


59.6 


883 


1,593 


.'■.5.4 


713 


1,201 


59.4 


599 


1,407 


42.5 


263 


819 


32.1 


409 


797 


51.4 


1,124 


1,700 


66.1 


366 


1,059 


34.5 


139 


968 


14.4 


224 


1,639 


13.7 


5 


4(iS 


l.I 


253 


1,100 


23.0 


307 


1,265 


24.3 


720 


1.023 


70.5 


1.109 


1.639 


67.5 


56 


743 


7.5 


275 


1,584 


17.4 


492 


718 


68.5 


1.188 


1.613 


73.5 



APPENDIX IV 



Population of Virginia. 1900.' 

White Colored Total Per cent 
County 

Accomac 20.743 1 1,827 

Albemarle 18.135 10.3:!8 

Alexandria ■'f.9'".2 2.4»)8 

^Alleghany 11.415 +.915 

Amelia 3,052 5.98.". 

^ Amherst 10.^07 7,057 

Appomattox 5,731 3.931 

Augusta 26,670 5.700 

'. Bath 4,589 1.006 

Bedford 20.617 9.739 

Bland 5.285 212 

Botetourt 13.284 3.877 

' Brunswick 7.375 10.842 

Buchanan 9.687 5 

Buckingham ~.415 7.851 

Campbell 13.641 9.615 

Caroline 7.667 0.042 

Carroll 18.964 339 

Charles City 1.344 3.696 

Charlotte 6.798 8.545 

Chesterfield 11.105 7.699 

Clarke 5.695 2.232 

Craig 4.0.32 261 

Culpeper 8.069 6.054 

Cumberland 2.791 6.205 

Dickenson 7.747 

Dinwiddie 5.874 9.500 

Elizabeth City 10.757 8,703 

Essex 3.576 6.125 

pairfax 13.576 5.004 

Fauquier 15.074 8..300 

Floyd 14.313 1.075 

Fluvanna 5.039 i.Oll 





Colored 


32.570 


36.3 


28,473 


36.3 


6.430 


38.3 


16,330 


.30.1 


9,037 


66.2 


17.864 


39.5 


9.662 


40.6 


32,370 


17.6 


5.595 


17.9 


30.356 


32.1 


5,497 


3.85 


17.161 


22.5 


18.217 


59.5 


9.692 


005 


15,266 


51.4 


23.2.-.6 


41 3 


16.709 


54.1 


19,303 


1.75 


5.04(1 


73.3 


15.343 


55.6 


18.804 


40.9 


7.927 


28.1 


4.293 


6.07 


14.123 


42.8 


8,996 


68.0 


7.747 


000 


15,374 


61.7 


19.460 


44.7 


9.701 


63.1 


18,580 


26.9 


23.374 


35.5 


15,388 


6.98 


9.050 


44.3 



' United States Census. 1900. 



184 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS 



Franklin 20,005 

Frederick 12,486 

Giles 9,997 

Gloucester 6,224 

Goochland 3,961 

Grayson 15,894 

Greene 4,783 

Greenville 3,401 

Halifax 17,922 

Hanover 9,696 

Henrico 17.246 

Henry 10,881 

Highland 5,269 

Isle of Wight 6,833 

James City 1,346 

King and Queen 4,006 

King George 3,596 

King William 3,266 

Lancaster 4,058 

Lee 19,116 

Loudoun 16,079 

Louisa 7,896 

Lunenburg 5,133 

Madison 6,695 

Mathews 5,844 

Mecklenburg 10,353 

Middlesex 3,684 

Montgomery 12,927 

Nansemond 10,115 

Nelson 10,403 

New Kent 1,660 

Norfolk 19,113 

Northampton 6,141 

Northumberland 5,680 

Nottoway 4,966 

Orange . 7,050 

Page 12,354 

Patrick 13,779 

Pittsylvania 25,605 

Powhatan 2,343 

Prince Edward 5,276 

Prince George 2,886 

Princess Anne 5,505 

Prince William 8,240 

Pulaski 11,373 

Rappaliannock 6,121 



5,948 


25,953 


22.9 


753 


13,239 


5.68 


799 


10,793 


7.40 


6,608 


12,832 


41.4 


5,558 


9,519 


58.4 


959 


16,853 


4.69 


1,431 


6,214 


23.0 


6,357 


9,758 


65.1 


19,275 


37,197 


51.8 


7,923 


17,618 


44.9 


12,816 


30,062 


42.6 


8,384 


19,265 


43.5 


378 


5.647 


6.69 


6,269 


13,102 


47.8 


2,342 


3,688 


63.5 


5,259 


9,265 


56.7 


3,322 


6,918 


48.0 


5,114 


8,380 


61.0 


4,891 


8,949 


54.6 


740 


19.856 


3.72 


5,869 


21,948 


26.7 


8,621 


16,517 


52.1 


6,572 


11,705 


56.1 


3,521 


10,216 


34.4 


2,395 


8,239 


29.0 


16,198 


26,551 


61.1 


4,536 


8,220 


55.1 


2,925 


15,852 


18.4 


12,963 


23,078 


56.1 


5,672 


16,075 


35.2 


3,205 


4,865 


65.8 


31,667 


50,780 


62.3 


7,629 


13,770 


55.4 


4,166 


9,846 


42.3 


7,400 


12,366 


59.8 


.-),;-) 21 


12,571 


43.9 


1,440 


13,794 


10.4 


1,624 


15,403 


10.5 


21,289 


46,894 


45.4 


4,481 


6,824 


65.6 


9,769 


15,045 


64.9 


4,866 


7,752 


62.7 


5.687 


11,192 


50.8 


2,872 


11,112 


25.8 


3,237 


14,609 


22.1 


2,722 


8,843 


30.8 



THE NEGRO IN VIRGINIA POLITICS 185 



Richmond 4,159 

Roanoke 11,990 

Rockbridge 17.715 

Rockingham :{0,89:{ 

Russell 17,207 

Scott 22,067 

Shenandoah 19,604 

Smyth 15,950 

Southampton 9,165 

Spottsylvania 5,353 

Stafford r).489 

Surry 3.286 

Sussex 4.121 

Tazewell 19,802 

Warren 7,372 

Warwick 1.159 

Washington 2(5.434 

Westmoreland 4.381 

Wise 17.688 

Wythe 17.653 

York 3,401 

Cities 

Alexandria 9,987 

Bristol 3,551 

Ruena Vista 1,978 

Charlottesville 3,S34 

Danville 10,002 

Fredericksburg 3,446 

Lynchburg 10,637 

Manchester 6.376 

Newport News 12.788 

Norfolk 26.317 

Petersburg 11 ,057 

Portsmouth 11 .782 

Radford 2,887 

Richmond 52.804 

Roanoke 15.654 

Staunton 5,456 

Winchester 4.056 

Williamsburg 1.366 



2,929 


7,088 


41.3 


3,847 


15,837 


24.3 


4,084 


21,799 


18.7 


2,634 


33.527 


7.85 


764 


18.031 


4.23 


627 


22.694 


2.76 


649 


20.253 


3.20 


1,171 


17.121 


6.83 


13,683 


22,848 


59.8 


3,886 


9,239 


42.1 


1.608 


8,097 


19.8 


5.183 


8,469 


61.2 


7,961 


12,082 


65.9 


3.583 


23,384 


15.3 


1.465 


8,837 


16.6 


3.729 


4,888 


76.3 


2,561 


28,995 


8.8.3 


4,862 


9,243 


52.6 


1,965 


19,653 


9,99 


2.784 


20.437 


13.6 


4.081 


7,482 


54.5 



4.541 


14.528 


31.2 


1,028 


4.579 


22 4 


410 


2,388 


17.2 


2,615 


6.449 


40.5 


6,518 


16,520 


.39.4 


1,622 


5,068 


.32.0 


8,254 


18,891 


43.7 


3,339 


9.715 


34.4 


6,847 


19.635 


34.9 


20,307 


46.624 


43.5 


10,753 


21.810 


49." 


5,645 


17.427 


32.4 


457 


3.344 


13.7 


32.246 


85.050 


37.9 


5.841 


21.495 


27.2 


1.833 


7,289 


25.1 


1.105 


5,161 


21.4 


678 


2,044 


33.2 



hsude 



Advertiser, Boston, 67 n. 

African Church, convention in, April, 1867, 3."); convention in, August, 

1867, 40. 
Alabama, l.U. 
Alexandria, Pierpont government moved to. IT); State convention 

meets at, 15; Radical center, 17. 
Allen, Edgar, elected by negroes from Prince Edward County, 1867, 

45; 51; opposes Constitution of 1868, 67; 68. 68 n.; in campaign 

of 1869, 72. 
Allen, General R., and Union League, :!4. 
Amendment. See Constitution. 
Anti-Mahoneites, 116, 117. 
Arnold, A. W., 127. 
Arthur, Chester A., 112, 115, 123. 
Aycock, Charles B., elected governor of North Carolina. 14.1. 

Baldwin, John B., Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. 1°65, 

18; and New Movement, 6."). O.l n.; and Committee of Nine. 66, 

67, 68. 
Ballot, voting by, introduced in Constitution of 1868, 59 n. 
Barbecue, negro, 75, 76 n. 
Barbour, James. 106. 
Barbour, John S., strengthens Conservative party. 118; in campaign 

of 1885, 124. 
Barrett, William E., quoted, l.io n. 
Bayne, Thomas, in Constitutional Convention of 1867, 51. 51 n.. 52. 

53, 56; and negro convention, 76. 
Beach, S. Ferguson, 70 n. 

Big Four, defeat Mahone's legislation. 114. 11.'), 116. 
Blair, F. S., 112. 
Bland, Jomes VV. D., in Constitutional Convention of 1867. 50 n.. 

52. 62 n. 
Booker, 0. W.. 62 n. 
Botts. Jolm Minor. 23, 25, 39. 40. 41. 
Bourbon, 109, 116. 
Branch, James R., 75. 

Bryan, W. J., and campaign of 1896. 135. 
Butler, General Benjamin F., speech before the Con'^titutional Con- 

vention of 1867. 54. 

187 



188 INDEX 

Cameron, Senator Don, aids Mahone, 112. 

Cameron, William E., Readjuster, lOB; elected governor, 112; leaves 
}*[ahone. 129. 

Campaign, of 1867, 43; of 1869, 70ff.; of 1869. returns, 76. 77, 78; of 
1870, results of, 84; of 1871, results of, 84; of 1872, 85; of 1873, 
86ff.; of 1873, returns of. 89; of 1879, in7; of 1882. 117; of 1S84, 
123; of 1885, 124, 125. 

Canby, General E. R. S., and election of 1869, 74. 

Carpetbaggers. 20, 36, 42, 43 n., 49, 78, 81, 87; defeated, 90; 94, 96, 
120, 161. 

Caucus, rule of. introduced by Mahone, 111. 

Chandler, L. H., 67. 

Charlotte county, 145; and Constitutional Convention of 1901, 148 n. 

Charlottesville, meeting in, at Delevan Hospital, 1867, 32; conserva- 
tive Republicans call convention at, 1867, 39. 

Clements, James H., campaign of 1869. 71. 

Cleveland, Grover, wins Virginia, 1884. 124. 

Coaches, separate, for races in Virginia, 141; in North Carolina, 143. 

Coalitionist State Convention, 123. 

Colored. See Negro. 

Commercial Gazette, Cincinnati, quoted, 124 n. 

Committee of Nine, chosen. 66; in Washington. 67; and campaign of 
1869, 73. 

Committee on the Elective Franchise and Qualification for Ofifice, 
Constitutional Convention of 1867, 55, 55 n. 

Congress, refuses to admit vSouthern representatives, 22, 23; Act of 
February 8, 1869, 59; removes disabilities from Southerners, 
1872, 87. 

Conservatives, early meaning of term, 43. 43 n.; party formed, 
December, 1867, 46; leaders in Constitutional Convention of 1867, 
51, 52; 61, 62; candidates. 1868, 62 n.; candidates withdraw, 1869, 
73; unite with moderate Republicans, 73, 74; and negro barbecue, 
75; vote on Funding Bill, 83; elected to Congress, 1870, 84; con- 
vention of, August. 1871, 84; in legislature, 1871, 84, 81 n.; fail to 
carry State for Greely, 85; elected to Congress, 1872, 85; con- 
vention of, August, 1873, platform of, 1873, 87; draw color line, 
88; and election of 1874. 90; and election of 1878, 96; strengthen 
party organization. 118; assume name, "Democrats," 118. 

Constitution, Virginia, of 1864, 15, 16. 17; Constitution of 1868 ("Un- 
derwood Constitution"), adopted, vote on. 55; nature of, 56, 57, 
58, 59, 60; vote on, delayed, 61, (-2; approved by House of Rep- 
resenatives. 64; Stuart proposes changes in, 64; 69; approved 
by Congress and submitted by President Grant to voters of Vir- 
ginia, 69; endorsed by negro convention, 76; vote on, returns of, 
76, 77; first amended, 85 n.; clause concerning elective franchise 
and qualifications for office and that part of, relating to local 



ixDKx 189 

government amended, 92; poll tax amendment, 'J2, 'J3; petty lar- 
ceny amendment in, denounced by negro convention, 95; amend- 
ments to, 147; Constitution of 1902, 135; 158; result of, 162; new, 
in North Carolina, 144. 

Constitutional Convention, of 1864, 15; of 1867-1868; SOflf.; persoimel 
of, 50; officers of, 51; close of, 55; of 1901-1902, 135. 147; vote on 
calling, 148, 149; begins session, personnel of, ITil; purposes of, 
151, 152. 

Convention, Unconditional Union, first statewide political convention 
after War of Secession, 23, 24; Republican, at Philadelphia and 
suffrage, 25; in African Church, Richmond. April, 1867, 35; Re- 
publican, of August, 1867, at Richmond, 40; of Conservatives. De- 
cember 1, 1867, o'-ganizes white man's party. 48; conservative, 
and Committee of Nine, 66. 67, 67 n., 68; Radical Republican, 
Petersburg. March, 1869, 71, 72, 73; moderate Republican. 1869, 
72; first unmixed negro State. 76; Conservative. 1871, 84; Con- 
servative, August, 1873, 86; negro. August. 1875. 94; Coalitionist 
(Republican), 123; Populist. 1892. 132; Democratic, at Norfolk. 
1900, 147. 

Cook, Fields, 35; and convention of August 1. 1867. 41. 

Cooperation Movement, inaugurated, aims of, 33; 40. 

Council of Foreign Bondholders of London, supports McCulloch 
Act, 104. 

County organization clause in Constitution of 1868, 68; not voted 
on separately, 69; amended, 92. 

Coupon Acts. 117. 

Coupon Killers, 113, 114. 

Cox, James. 43. 

Currry, J. L. M., quoted, 96. 90 n.; Funder, 106. 

Dabney. R. H., quoted. 141 n. 

Dabney, R. L., letter of, 23 n. 

Daniel, John W.. Funder. 106; quoted. 119; 153. 

Daniel, Raleigh T.. Speech at negro meeting, 1867. 32; and Xcw 

Movement. 65 n.; and campaign of 1873. 86. 89. 
Danville, riot in, 1883, 119. 120. 

Davis. Jefferson, summoned by Judge Underwood, 38. 
Dawson. John M., Republican Candidate. 1882, 117. 
Debt. See State debt. 
Debt Payer. 103. 

Delevan Hospital, meeting at, 32. 
Democrats, hesitate in drawing the color line, 119; legislation of, 

122; in campaign of 1885, 124; successful in Virginia. 1888. 129. 

130; in Congressional election. 1890, 131; in election of 1892. 132; 

in elections of 1896 and 1897, 134; in Constitutional Convention 

of 1901-1902, 151; sign Constitution of 1902. 157. 



190 INDEX 

Disfranchising clause, Constitution of 1868, 55, 56, 56 n.; submitted 
to voters separately, 69; 79. 

Dispatch, Richmond, quoted, 75; quoted, 79; quoted, 87 n.; quoted, 
125. 

Douglas, Dr. W. C, in campaign of 1869, 72. 

Downing, Speaker, Virginia legislature, 1865, views on negro fran- 
chise, 16. 

Duelling, legislation regarding, 93, 93 n., 116. 

Duval, General, and vagrants, 19. 

Early, Jubal A., proposes emigration, 23 n. 

Eastham, Dr.. and Constitution of 1868, 58. 

Election, of 1867, 43, 44, 45, 46; of 1869, 76, 77, 79, 79 n.; of 1871, re- 
sults of, 84; of 1874, results, 90; national, of 1876, significance of, 
96; of 1877, 96; of 1878, 96; of 1879, 107; of 1881, 112; Congres- 
sional, of 1882, 117; of 1883, effect of Danville riot on, 121; Con- 
gressional, of 1884, 123, 124; of 1885, national importance of, re- 
sults of, 124, 125; Congressional, 1888, 127, 128; of 1889, 129, 130; 
national, of 1888, results, 131; of 1890, 131; of 1893, 131; national, 
of 1892, 131; of 1893, 132; of 1896 and of 1897, 134; national, of 
1896, 135; of 1900, vote on calling constitutional convention, 148, 
149. 

Election, laws, Federal, repealed, 132. 

Election frauds, 132, 134, 145, 146. 

Elective franchise, in Constitution of 1868 amended, 92; reports on, 
152, 153; Article II, Constitution of 1902, 154-159. 

Elective franchise and qualification for office, committee on, Con- 
stitutional Conventon of 1901-1902, 152. 

Evans, James P., 89 n. 

Evening Journal, Richmond, quoted, 75. 

Fernald, W. L., Readjuster, 111 n.; speech of, to negroes, 120 n. 

Fifteenth Amendment, ratified by legislature, 79. 

Fletcher, Governor, and New Movement, 65 n. 

Foraker, J. B., Speaks in Virginia, 1885, 124. 

Force Bill, 130, 131, 132. 

Fourteenth Amendment, rejected by legislature, 25, 26; ratified by 
legislature, 79. 

Fourth Congressional District, in election of 1883, 122, 122 n.; elec- 
tion of 1888, 127; counties included in, population of, 1888, 127 n.; 
131. 

Freedmen, vagrant, 19, 20, 21. 

Freedmen's Bureau, established in Virginia, 31. 

Fultz, David, and campaign of 1873, 86. 

Funders, 106, 107; and Democratic party, 110; compromise with Re- 
adjusters, 117, 118, 122. 



INDEX 191 

Funding Act, 1871, 83; condemned hy Republicans. 84; unsatisfactory, 

98; and State finances, 101, 102. 

Garfield, James A., 112. 

General Assembly. See Legislature 

Georgia. 1.31. 

Gerrymander, 82; attempted by Malione, 115; by Democrats. 123. 

Gibson, Eustace, in Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868. 51. 

Glass, Carter, and Convention of 1901-1902. 

Gold Democrats, 134, 135. 

Goode, John, election of 1874, 00 n.; Cbairman of the Constitutional 

Convention of 1901-1002. 151. 
Grandfather clause in Constitution of 1002. l.")4 n.. 159. 
Grange movement, 103. 
Grant, U. S., General Schofield's letter to. 57; and Committer' of 

Nine, 69; submits Constitution of 1868 to people, sets date of 

election, 1869, 69, 74; 88. 
Greely, Horace, speaks in Richmond, 39 n.; aids Committee of N'ine. 

67; fails to win State in 1872, 85. 
Gregg, General, and vagrant freedment, 19. 
Griggs, N. M., 130 n. 

Hale. Peyton G., and Big Four, 114 n. 

Harrison. Benjamin. 130. 

Harris, Dr. J. D., in campaign of 1860. 

Hatton, Goodrich. 154 n. 

Hawxhurst. John. 39 n.; and Republican convention of .\ugust 1, 

1867, 41; and Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868. 51. 53; 

62, 70. 
Hayes. President R. B., 06 n. 
Haygood, Atticus G., quoted. 137 n. 
Henry, Patrick, views on slavery, 11. 
Hodges. William A., in Constitutional Convention of 1867- isr.^. 51. 

51 n.. 52. 
Hoge, Moses D., letter to Dabney. 23 n. 
Holliday, F. W. M., elected Governor, opposes Mahonc. 10'! : carl/ 

life. 103 n.; Funder, 106; vetoes Riddlehcrper Bill. 10<. 
Holmes, James R.. killed. 145. 
Hoss. E. E.. quoted, 137 n. 

Hughes. Robert W.. and campaign of 1873. 86. 
Hunnicutt. James W.. and convention at Philadelphia, former career. 

25. 25 n.; speech in African Church convention. :!4; an estimate 

of, 34; victory over conservative faction of Republican party. .39. 

39 n., 40; speech before convention of .August i. 1867. 40. 41; 43; 

speech and arrest. 46. 46 n.; advises further disfranchisement of 

whites, 55, 55 n.; 62; in campaign of 1869. 70. 
Hunter. R. M. T., 47. 



192 INDEX 

Illinois, legislation of, against negroes, 16 n. 

Inaction, Whig and Dispatch advise Virginians against, 26; advised 

by Republican leaders, llil. 
Independents, elected to legislature, 1877, 96. 

JeflFerson, Thomas, views on slavery, 11. 

Johnson, Andrew, 15; 17. 

Johnson, Bradley T., 144 n. 

Johnson, James F., Committee of Nine, 06. 

Johnson, Marmaduke, speech before negro committee. 1867, 32; and 

New Movement, 65 n. 
Johnson, Solon, 32. 
Johnston, Joseph E., 96 n. 
Judges, changes regarding, in Constitution of 1868, 59; character of 

those appointed by Readjusters, 108. 

Kemper, James L., in campaign of 1873, 86; quoted, 90, 90 n., 99 n.; 
and State debt, 101, 102. 

Langston, John W., campaign of 1888, 128; 137. 

Lee. FitzHugh, elected Governor, 1885, 124. 

Legislature, of 1865, and State debt, 13, 181; of 1865 and vagrant 
freedmen, 19, 20, 21, and slavery, 21; of 1869, recognized by Fed- 
eral government, 79; of 1869, personnel of, 77, 78; of 1869, ratifies 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, 79; of 1871, personnel of, 
84, 84 n.; of 1873, personnel of, 85; of 1881, personnel of, 112; of 
1882, personnel of, 114; of 1883, 121, 122, 122 n.; of 1883, laws of, 
undoing Mahoneism, 123; of 1889, personnel of, 129, 130; of 1891, 
personnel of, 131; of 1893, personnel of, 132. 

Lewis, John F., and campaign of 1869, 72, 77; lieutenant-governor, 
1881, 112. 

Lindsay, Lewis, advocates social and political equality for races, 40; 
43; 51; in Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, 52, 56; in cam- 
paign of 1869, 72. 

Local governments, new system of, established, 82; number of offi- 
cers in, reduced, 92; system of, changed by constitutional amend- 
ment, 94. 

Lodge, H. C, Force Bill. 130. 

Lybrook, A. M., 114 n. 

Lynching, some causes of, 128, 129; account of, 136-140. 

McCulIoch, Hugh, and State debt, 102; and McCuUoch Act, 103 n. 
McCulloch Act, 103, 103 n., 104, 105. 

McFarland, William H., speech before negro committee, 32. 
McIIwaine, R. H., 154 n., 155. 

McKinney, Philip, elected Governor, 129; opposes lynching, 139. 
Mahone, William, in campaign of 1869, 70; and campaign of 1873, 
86; and Readjuster Movement, 97; and Readjuster party, 103, 



INDKX 193 

104, 105, 106; and the appointment of judges. 108; elected to 
United States Senate, 109; and Republican party, 109; joins Re- 
publicans in Senate, 1881, 110; refuses to join Funders in na- 
tional politics, 110; sends caucus pledge. 111; defeats Masscy's 
nomination for governor, 112; aided by Republicans, 112; at- 
tempts to win back Massey, 114; legislation attempted by, 115, 
116; 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 12:5; and campaign of 1985, 124, 
125; political methods of, 126; end of political career of, 129; 
134; 137; 149; 161. 

Mohoneism, undoing of, 123. 

Mahoneites. 116. 

Marye, John L., Jr., a Conservative leader in Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1867-1868, 51; 54; candidate, 1868, 62 n.; and Committee 
of Nine, 66. 

Massey, John E., and Rcadjuster Movement, 104, 106; as campaigner, 
106; breaks with Mahone, 111, 114; and Big Four, 114; joins 
Anti-Mahoneites, campaign of 1882, 117. 

Maury, Matthew F., discusses emigration after war, 23 n. 

Missouri, 131. 

Morissey, James, 43. 

Mozart Hall, convention in, 104. 

Murphy, Edgar Gardner, quoted, 161. 

Murray, George Washington, quoted, 160. 

Nation, quoted. 87, 107 n., 158. 

Neeson, James, and Committee of Nine, 66. 

Negroes, number in Virginia, 1865 and 1902, in Massachusetts. 5; and 
suffrage in the North before 1865, 12; enfranchised in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, disfranchised later, 13, 14; legislation in Illi- 
nois against, 16 n.; relations with whites, 1865-1867. 21; first at- 
tempt of, to vote in Virginia, 27; suffrage and the North. 29; tcg- 
istrants, 1867, 30; enfranchised in 1867, 31; invite whites to con- 
ference, 32; and African Church convention, in Capitol Square 
mass convention, advocate confiscation of "rebel" property, 35; 
serve on jury in Virginia for first time. 36, 36 n.; and street '•ars, 
36; as petty jurors. 37. 37 n.; riots in 1867. 36. 38. 39 n.; and poli- 
tics, 42, 43; voters, 44; conservative convention advocates con- 
trol of, 47; delegates in Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, 
50 n.; enfranchisement discussed. 53. 54. 55; unqualified enfran- 
chisement of. in constitution of 1868. 55; early opinion cf grant- 
ing suffrage to. in North. 63. 63 n.; suffrage to. proposed by A. 
H. H. Stuart, 64, 65; resolution* regarding suffrage to. in con- 
vention of December 31, 1869. 67 n.; suppor Wells. 71: membcr.<i 
of Republican central committee. 1869. 72; first unmixed State 
convention of, 76; candidates for office. 1869, 76; in campaign 
of 1869, 74, 75, 76, 77; barbecue of, 75; vote of on railroad bill, 

—13 



194 INDEX 

82; vote on funding bill, 83; in Conservative convention. August, 
1871, 84; in legislature, 1871, 84, 84 n.; members of Republican 
Convention, July 30, 1873, 86; and campaign of 1873, 87; illiter- 
ates, 1870, 87 n.; in legislature, 1873, 89; friendly race relations, 
89; candidates nominated, 90 n.; and poll tax, 93; in local gov- 
ernment, 94; resolutions of, convention, August 20, 1875, 94, 95; 
in legislature 1877, 96; effects of freedom on, 99; and Readjuster 
convention, 104; in legislature, 1879, 107; Readjusters bid for 
vote of. 107; and Mahone, 118, 119; and Danville riot, 119, 120; 
elected in 1883, 122. 122 n.; whites resolve to eliminate, from poli- 
tics, 125; and Langston's campaign, 127, 128; statistics of. 128 
n.; votes of, bought, 129; in legislature, 1889, 130, 131 n.; con- 
gressman, 131; none in State senate, 1891, 131; and elections of 
1896 and of 1897, 134; race relations, 135; criminal statistics re- 
garding, 136; lynching of, 136-140; removal from politics of, de- 
manded, 140; law for separate cars in Virginia, 141; in North 
Carolina, 143; race relations in North Carolina, 141-144; disfran- 
chised in North Carolina, 143; preachers, 144, 144 n., 145; meth- 
ods of eliminating votes of, 145; statistics, 1900, 148; in Ninth 
and Fourth Congressional Districts, 149, 150; and taxation. 150, 
151 n.; and Constitution of 1902, 158, 159; in politics. 161; prog- 
ress of, race relations of, 162. 

New England, restrictions on franchise in, 93 n. 

New Movement, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 73. 

Newberry, Samuel H., 114 n.; 122. 

News, Lynchburg, quoted, 89. 

Ninth Congressional District, 149. 

North Carolina, race relations in, 141-144; law for separate coaches, 
143, 144; "Revolution" in, 143, 144; new constitution, 1900, 143. 

Norton, Dr. Robert, and campaign of 1869, 75; in election of 1874, 
90 n. 

O'Ferrall, Charles T., elected Governor, 134; quoted, 138 n.; opposes 

lynching, 139; quoted, 140 n. 
Ofifice, qualification foi, in Constitution of 1868, amended, 92. 
Owen, W. L., and Committee of Nine, 66. 

People's Party. See Populists. 

Petersburg, mass meeting in, 1867, 32; Republican Radical conven- 
tion in, March, 1869, 71. 

Petty larceny, clause in constitution, 92. 

Pierpont, F. 11., governor of Restored Government of Virginia, 15; 
calls extra session of legisfature, 1807, 26; 39; 43; removed from 
office, 62. 

Piatt, James H., in election of 1874, 90 n. 

Poll tax, 92, 92 n., 93. 116. 

Pollard, John Garland. 155. 



INDI-X 195 

Population, of Virginia by races, 186r> and 1902, compared with that 
of other states, 5; before War of Secession. 11; of North Car- 
olina, 1890, 142. 

Populists, 131; in Virginia. i:i2; in North Carolina. Hi.'; 14'.«. 

Porter, Charles H.. ")1. 

Post, Washington, quoted, 125 n. 

Prince Edward County, 45; vote of, on calling Constitutional Con- 
vention of J'JOl-1902, 148 n. 

Public schools, mixed, debate on, :>2; in Constitution of 1868, 59 n.; 
inaugurated, in Virginia, 82; 85; advocated by Conservatives, 87. 

Race friction, caused by political agitation, 6; causes of. 22; in cam- 
paign of 18()7, 46; increase of, 126; 127; 135. 

Race problem, in Virginia, 1865 and 1902, 5; proportional to density 
of negro population, 5; before the War of Secession. 11; at '»nd 
of War of Secession, 12. 

Radicals, 43, 43 n.; win in 1867, 44; in Constitutional Convention of 
1867-1868, 51; attempt to disfranchise whites, 55; candidates, 
1868, 62; convention of, November, 1869, 79; protest to Congress 
over Conservative victory, 79, 80; lose control in State, menace 
in local governments, 81; elected to Congress, 1872, 85. 

Railroads, owned by State sold. 82. 

Rape, and lynchings. 136-140. 

Raulston, Col. carpetbagger. 120. 

Readjuster Movement, causes of, 85; and negro vote. 97; account of 
98 fT. ; two phases of. significance of, 125. 

Readjusters. and poll tax, 92 n.; opposed by Governor Holliday, i0.1; 
convention of, at Mozart Hall, 104 fF.; in legislature, 1879. 107; 
judges, 108; wholesale removal of officers by, 108, 109; party of, 
and Republican party, 109. 110; party of, changes into Mahonc's 
party. 111; and election of 1881. 112; and state debt, 113, 114; in 
legislature. 1882, 114; elected to Congress. 1882. 115; legislation 
enacted by, 116; and Republican party. 123. 124; 161. 

Reconstruction, Committee in Congress investigates conditions in 
Virginia, 21; Acts of March 2 and March 23, 26, 27; beginning of. 
27; registration under, disfranchise whites. tO; ,'?: undoing of. 
91; 96. 

Registrants, number of, 1867. 30. 

Registration officers, chosen by Schofield. 28. 

Republicans, form Union Association of Alexandria, advocote ne- 
gro suffrage, 17; party of, only party in Virginia. 1867. 31; radi- 
calism of, in Virginia, 34; attempt to create morlorate party. 34; 
Radical convention of, at African Church an ' in Capitol Square. 
35; convention of, April 17, 1867, separate convention of conserv- 
ative. 39; compromise meeting, factions of. 39; convention of. 
August 1, 1867. 40. 41; 42; 43; 43 n.; Radical, attempt to di«- 



196 INDEX 

franchise whites, 55; party of, 61, 62; Radical, candidates, 1868, 
62; adopt universal negro suffrage, 63; Radical convention of, 
71, 72; moderate, revolt, 72; Radical convention of, 79; Radical, 
appeal to Congress, 79, 80; lose control of State government, a 
menace in local governments, 81; vote on Funding Bill, 83; con- 
vention and platform of, 1871, 84; elected to Congress, 1870, 84; 
in legiskture, 1871, 84, 84 n.; elected to Congress, 1872, 85; Rad- 
ical convention of, July 30, 86; lose power, 88; defeated, 1873, 
89; members of legislature, election 1879, 96; Congressional elec- 
tion of 1878, 96; Mahone's party adopts name of, 124; win in na- 
tional elections, deadlock broken, elections in Virginia, 1888, 127; 
divide, 129; attempt to regain South, 130; in elections of 1890, 
1891, 1893, 131; in Southwest, 134, 135; and elections of 1896 and 
1897, 134, 135; in North Carolina, 142; oppose constitutional 
convention, 148; in Southwest, 149; in Constitutional Conven- 
tion of 1901-1902, 151; in Southwest, 152; vote on Constitution 
of 1902, 157, 157 n. See also Radicals. 

Restored Government of Virginia, established, moved to Alexan- 
dria, 15. 

Review of Reviews, quoted, 159. 

Richmond, succeeds Alexandria as Radical center, 37; convention of 
August 1, 1867 in, 40; election returns from, 1867, 45. 

Riddleberger, H. H., elected to United States Senate, 109; joins Re- 
publicans, 110. 

Riddleberger Bill enacted, nature of, 114; Riddleberger Act, 117. 

Riddlebergers, 114. 

Riot, those of 1867, 36, 37; in Danville. 119, 120. 121; in Roanoke, 139; 
in Wilmington, N. C, 142-144. 

Roanoke, riot in, 139. 

Robertson, Wyndham, and Committee of Nine, 66. 

Royall, William L., quoted, 85; attorney for bondholders. 113 n. 

Ruffner, W. H., first State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 82; 
quoted, 88, 89; and poll tax requirement, 93; removed from of- 
fice by Readjusters, 109. 

Rumsdell. C. P.. and campaign of 1873, 86. 

Scalawag, 42; 43 n.; 49. 

Schofield, John M., advises Virginia to adopt Fourteenth Amend- 
ment, 26 n.; military governor of District Number 1, 27; disperses 
negro mob, 38; re-opens polls, 1867, 44; and Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1867, 55; and Constitution of 1868, 55, 56, 57 n., 59, 
61, 62. 

Schools. See Public schools. 

Secret ballot, Kemper on, 91 n. 

Senate, United States, and Readjuster senators, 110. 

Senex, article appears, 64. 



ixDKx 197 

Sherman. John, speaks in Virginia, 124, 124 n. 

Slaughter, J. F., and Committee of Xine, tjt). 

Slaughter House cases, 88. 

Slave trade, opposed by Virginia. 11. 

Slavery, Virginia's attitude towards, 11, 12; problem in Virginia 
prior to War of Secession, 11, 12; resolution of legislature con- 
cerning, 21. 

Smith, Gerritt, speaks in Riclimond. .;<) n. 

Smith, George S., 22. 

Snead, Edward, and Constitutional Convention of 18G7-186H, .')1; op- 
poses clauses in Constitution of 18158, US. 

South Carolina, i;U. 

Spain, effect of war with, 1;J2. 

State debt, resolution of legislature about, 1866, 18, 81; begini.ing 
of, 81; and Funding Act, 83; State defaults in interest on, 83; 
before 1879, 98; bondholders meeting, 1874, 102; and McCulloch 
Act, 103, 104, 105; and Readjuster convention in Mozart Hall, 
104; and Riddleberger Bill, 107. 114; and Coupon Killers, 113, 114; 
and politics, 116, 117; settlement of, accepted by Conservative 
(Democratic) party, 117, 118; 132. 

Stearnes, Franklin, 43, 67, 68. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, desires to punish South, 28; 3.'5. 

Stoneman, General, succeeds Schofield, opinion of Constitution of 
1868, 59, 59 n., 60; succeeded by Canby, 74. 

Stowell, William H. H.. elected to Congress, 90. 

Stuart, Alexander H. H.. chairman of Conservative convention of 
December 11, 1867. address to convention. 47; writes Scnex arti- 
cle, and begins Xew Movement. ()4; and Committee of Nine. 66; 
and election of 1869. 74. 

Suffrage, in District of Columbia and in Xorthern States, l.l, 14. 17, 
29; negro, opposed by Republicans. 15, 16; discussed in Conven- 
tion of 1867-1868, 55; early Northern view of, 63, 63 n.; adopted 
by Republican party, 64; advocated in Senex article, 64, 6.'»; res- 
olutions of convention of December 31, 1869, 67 n. 

Sutherland, W. T., and Committee of Nine, 66. 

Tanner, William E., 114 n. 
Tax. poll, 92, 92 n., 93, 155, 156. 157, 158. 
Taylor, J. C, and campaign of 1869, 72, 77. 
Tennessee, 131. 

Terry, Major-General, annuls vagrancy law. 21. 
Test oath, in Constitution of 1868, 57, 57 n., 60, 69. 80. 
Thorn, A. P., and Constitutional Convention of 1901-1902, 153. 
Thomas, Judge, 24. 

Tidewater, section of Virginia, majority of negroes in Piedmont 
and, 5. 



198 INDEX 

Times, New York, aids Committee of Nine 67n.; quoted, 109 n. 

Times, Richmond, 134. 

Township, system, introduced in Constitution of 1868, 59; name 

changed to "county," 91. 
Tribune, Chicago, 67 n. 
Tribune, New York, quoted, 34; 67 n. 
Tucker, John Randolph, Funder, 106. 
Tyler, Hoge, opposes lynching, 140. 

Unconditional Union Convention meets at Alexandria, resolutions 
of, 23. 

Understanding clause in Constitution of 1902, 153, 154, 154 n. 

Underwood, John C, early activities in Virginia, 24; presides at Fed- 
eral Circuit Court, Richmond, 1867, 36; charge to jury, 36, 36 n.; 
43; chairman of Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, 51; in 
Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, 54. 

Underwood Convention. See Constitutional Convention of 186/-1868. 

Union League, organized in Virginia, 31; 42; and campaign of 
1869, 77. 

Usury clause in Constitution of 1868, 85 n. 

Vagrancy laws, effect on North of, 17. 

Vagrants, menace to State, laws concerning, 19, 20, 21. 

Van Auken, J. H., testifies before Reconstruction Committee, 128 n. 

Venable, Edward C, opposed by Langston, 127. 

Virginia, population of, by races, 1865 and 1902, 5; attitude towards 
politics prior to 1861, 6; attitude towards slavery, 11, 12; growth 
of anti-slavery feeling in, 11, 12; enters War of Secession, 12; 
Constitution of 1864, 15; Restored Government of, 1861, 15; be- 
comes Military District Number 1. 27; condition of, after war, 
28 n.; registration in, 1867, 30; admitted to Union, 80; financial 
condition of, 1875, 85; credit of. 98, 99 n.; economic and finan- 
cial condition of. 98 ff. ; decrease in realty values in, 100; annual 
State revenue and expenditures, 100, 101, 101 n.; statistics of, 
128 n.; separate cars for races in, 141; new constitution pro- 
claimed. 1902, 155. 

Virginia Union Association, 70 n. 

Walker. James A., candidate. 1868. 62 n. 

Walker, Gilbert C, .'Kids Committee of Nine, 68; in campaign of 
1869, 72; elected governor. 77; 78; and State debt, 82; sells State 
railroads, 82; and Conservative convention. 1871, 84; and State 
debt, 98, 99, 100. 

Walton law, 145. 

Warner, Charles Dudley, views on negro education, 159. 

Washington, Booker T., negro leader, 160; quoted, 160, 161. 

Watson, Dr., 25. 

Watson, Walter A., and Constitutional Convention of 1901-1902, 155. 



iNi)i:x 199 

Wells, H. H., temporary governor of Virginia, candidate, 1868, 62. 

02 n.; before Reconstruction Committee, G«; candidate, campaign 

of 18f)9, 70, 71, 72, 7.'{, 74; resigns governor's chair, 7y. 
West Virginia, formation of, 15; share of State debt in McCulloch 

Act, 104, 105; and State debt, 105. 
Wheeling, W. Va., legislature of Restored Government meets at. 15. 
Pi'liig, Richmond, sides with Readjusters. lOO; quoted, 115 
White, David B., 51. 
Wickham, W. C, Kunder, lOO. 
Williams, B. K., and Big P'our. 114 n. 
Williams, John Sharp, and negro question, 162. 
\\'ilniington, N. C, race riots in, 142-144. 
Wilson, Senator, visits Virginia, 34. 
Wise, Henry A., opposes New Movement, t)5 n. 
Wise, John S., Readjuster, 106; elected to Congress, 1882, 117; and 

campaign of 1885, 124; leaves Mahone, 129. 
Withers, R. E., candidate, 1868. 62; in campaign of 1873. 86; United 

States senator, 89 n. 
Wysor, J. C, and franchise article in Constitution of 1902, 151 



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